Paralympic Crews go head to head at Canadian Henley!

Sunday August 10, 2008 was an exciting day for Canada’s Paralympic team. At the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta four Canadian National Adaptive crews raced against some tight competition, including the US Paralympic team.

In the adaptive trunk and arms (TA) mixed 2x, national team athletes Papito Moré Wilson and Catlin Renneson came up against some tight competition against the Argonaut Rowing Club’s crew of, Katie Wallace (ironically the TA 2x spare) and her able bodied partner Larry Marshall. Normally an able bodied athlete would not compete in this event but in order to give the Paralympic TA 2x some competition before Beijing, this was allowed. The crews were quite tight with Argo’s winning in a time of 4:41.79 and the Paralympic 2x finishing a close second in a time of 4:45.96. Rebecca Orr is the Paralympic TA 2x coach.

The arms only men’s single, coached by Shannon Harvey, had two National Adaptive Rowing Team (NART) entries and one entry from Barrie Rowing Club. Steve Daniel, NART’s Paralympic arms only single sculler finished first in a time of 5:31.50. The 1x sculler spare, Peter Morel came second in a time of 5:47.41 with Colin Wilson of Barrie finishing third in a time of 6:58.28. Steve Daniel was encouraged by his race: “It was a great experience to finally race at Henley and a terrific prelude to my races in Beijing at the Paralympics. There is good camaraderie among the adaptive rowers and I look forward to racing at the Henley Regatta next year"

The arms only women’s single did not have a NART entry. However, the US Paralympic women’s arms only 1x raced in this event and finished first in a time of 5:42.49 against the Canadian adaptive1x sculler of Cambridge Rowing Club, Christy Campbell, finishing second in a time of 5:54.39.

The final adaptive race of the day was the leg trunk and arms (LTA) mixed coxed four. This was an extremely exciting race as both US and Canadian Paralympic teams fought it out over the 1000 m distance for first. The US crew was made up of Simona Chin (cox), Emma Preuschl, Tracy Tackett, Jesse Karmazin and Jamie Dean. The Canadian crew included: Laura Comeau (cox), Anthony Theriault, Victoria Nolan, Meghan Montgomery, and Scott Rand. The final results had the US team only .01 seconds ahead of Canada’s team with times of 3:38.64 and 3.38.65 respectively. The Canadian LTA 4+ are looking ahead to their next race in Beijing: “…there is no better way to keep you hungry than .01 (of a second)” said cox, Laura Comeau. Anne Renee Thibault, the LTA 4+ coach, was confident there was more speed to be found in this crew after reviewing the race. “We know we can go faster” said Thibault.

Allison Sheard, the Paralympic rowing team manager for Canada shared some final thoughts on the adaptive events at Henley this year: “This is the first year that the US national team have come to Henley and I hope they continue to use this event as a launching point prior to World Championships or Paralympic Games. It is good for us as two geographically close countries to use each other to push to a higher level of competition. By continuing to include adaptive racing at this prestigious regatta increases awareness, participation and competition for adaptive athletes across North America. A big thank-you to the Henley organizing committee for including adaptive events again”

For complete results go to: http://www.henleyregatta.ca/