World Rowing e-Magazine, October 2007

COMPetitiON

Claudia Santos of Brazil celebrates her victory in the arms women's single sculls at the 2007 World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany.

ADAptIvE ROWInG
COMInG Of aGE

Since its beginnings internationally at the 2002 World Rowing Championships, adaptive rowing this year demonstrated that it had firmly established itself as a competitive force in rowing. the signal was clear with Munich supporting twice as many entries in the four events – the women’s arms only single (AW1x) and men’s arms only single (AM1x), the trunk and arms double (tA2x) and the legs, trunk and arms mixed coxed four (ltAMx4+).

At the end of racing adaptive athletes that had formerly dominated events were no longer in the top spot, new World Best Times had been set in three events and the top eight boats in each event had earned qualifying positions at the 2008 Paralympic Games. Next year is the first time adaptive rowing will be raced at the Paralympic Games.

One of the finest displays in racing came when Germany’s coxed four only just beat the reigning World Champions, Great Britain, in front of an elated home crowd. The 2006 World Champion of the men’s single, Australia’s Dominic Monypenny also felt the increased competitive pressure with newcomer Tom Aggar of Great Britain sprinting through to take gold. Aggar set a new World Best Time in the process. Aggar’s time of 5: 13. 13 over the 1000m course was a huge 15 seconds faster than the record set by Monypenny in last year’s A Final.

The women’s single went to Claudia Santos of Brazil in her first year as a rower and first time racing at an international event. Previously Santos competed as a swimmer. The depth of competition pushed reigning World Champion, Helen Raynsford of Great Britain, into fifth in this event.

Three-time World Champions, USA, could not hold on to their number one spot in the double. JosianeLima and LucasPagani of Brazil are now the new World Champions. Lima and Pagani also set a new World Best Time of 4: 10.69 and earned a position in the 2008 Paralympic Games. The United States ended fifth and also qualify for the Paralympic Games.