The Very Last Chance to Qualify for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Is Tomorrow at the “Last Chance Regatta”

The finalists are confirmed, we are now into the business end of the 2024 World Rowing Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta (FOPQR).

Competition on the penultimate day of the 2024 FOPQR was fierce enough, but tomorrow everything will go up another gear as crews race for the very last time for tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. There are seven spots available across the five Paralympic classes and 30 available in the fourteen Olympic boat classes. For the rest of the crews, the campaign will be over.

Competition is set to be intense in the single sculls. On the men’s side, the scullers have already gone through three rounds of racing to get down to the final six. The line-up includes three-time Olympian Kjetil Borch of Norway who was beaten by Romana’s Mihai Chiruta in the semifinal today. In the women’s single sculls, Irish sculler Sanita Puspure will also hope to qualify for her fourth Olympic Games in this boat class and is likely to face tough opposition from Spain’s Virginia Diaz Rivas, who raced in the women’s pair in Tokyo.

Paris 2024 will be the last time that the lightweight double sculls are included in the Olympic programme so there is significant competition in those categories. The women’s race will include the gold and silver medallists from Tokyo; Italy and France. The Paris 2024 host country will also feature in the race for qualification places in the lightweight men’s double sculls, hoping to race on home waters later this year.

In the para boat classes, Brazil is hoping to qualify several boats. In the PR1 men’s single sculls, Rene Campos Pereira is hoping to qualify for his third Paralympic Games, while they are also hoping to be present in the PR3 mixed double sculls, the boat class which will be raced at a Paralympic Regatta for the first time.

There are just two places available in the double sculls. In the men’s event, Moldova have booked their place in the final and if they can finish in the top two tomorrow, it will be the first time ever that the Republic of Moldova is represented at the Olympic Games in Rowing. They will need to overcome strong opposition from the USA, Serbia and Greece.

In the women’s double sculls, it looks like it will be a race for the two places between Czechia, Great Britain and Switzerland. The British got the better of the Swiss in the repechage today, but it could all change tomorrow.

The last two Paris 2024 tickets will be on the line in the men’s eight, which will wrap up the “Last Chance Regatta” on Tuesday.

The A-Finals will start at 10:05 CET and will be live streamed on the World Rowing website.