Three U.S. Crews Head to B Finals on Saturday at Paralympic Games in Tokyo

The PR2 mixed double sculls, PR1 men's single sculls and PR1 women's single sculls all finished fourth in their respective repechages on Saturday and will now race in Sunday's B finals at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. The U.S. will have one crew – the PR3 mixed four with coxswain – racing for a medal on Sunday at Sea Forest Waterway.

In the second repechage of the PR2 mixed double sculls, first-time Paralympian Russell Gernaat (Redwood City, Calif.) and two-time Paralympian Laura Goodkind (Los Angeles, Calif./Whittier College) finished fourth, missing a spot in the final by about two boat lengths.

"Actually, it was a really good race," said Gernaat. "I think one of the things that we're happy about is some of those boats like the Ukraine and Brazil beat us in Austria at the world championships in 2019 and today it wasn't quite that gap. We put down a very reasonable time on the course in the headwind and we feel like, ultimately, it could have been a little bit better, but still just really happy with how it all turned out."

With two to advance to the final, Brazil got off to the quick start, building a two second lead in the first half of the race. But, Ukraine and Italy began closing down the Brazilians' lead in the third 500, with the Ukrainian crew moving into the top position with 500 meters to go. Ukraine continued to pull away over the final quarter of the race, while Italy chased down Brazil for the final qualification spot. The U.S. tried to close the gap in the final 500 meters but couldn't move into a top-two position. Ukraine won the race in an 8:17.99, with Italy finishing in an 8:20.98. Gernaat and Goodkind finished with a time of 8:26.17. The U.S. will take on crews from Brazil, Uzbekistan, Australia, France and Canada in the B final for overall places 7-12.

"It's great to be racing against other nations rather than our coach's imagination and making up boats," Goodkind said. "To have that experience live and in-person and have these Games still being held is really cool."

"We go to Chula and you've got your coach in the launch and there's no one else around—it's just us," said Gernaat. "That makes training for competitions like this quite challenging and it's such a different environment when you can hear and feel and see your competition out of the corner of your eye."

In the PR1 women's single sculls, first-time Paralympian Hallie Smith (Washington D.C./Smith College) finished fourth in the first of two repechages and will race in the B final for overall places 7-12 on Sunday. With the top two advancing to the medal race, Smith got off the line in third behind France's Nathalie Benoit and Brazil's Claudia Sabino before dropping to fourth before the first 500-meter split. Benoit, who finished second in the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, took more than a nine-second lead on Sabino in the opening 500 meters and continued to extend that advantage throughout the race. In turn, Sabino built an eight-second margin on Argentina's Brenda Sardon in the first quarter and had no trouble securing the second qualifying spot. At the line, Benoit finished with a time of 10:56.23, more than 29 seconds ahead of Sabino. The Brazilian finished 35 seconds ahead of Sardon. Smith clocked a 12:13.12 to finish fourth. She will take on scullers from Argentina, Japan, Korea, Belarus and Kenya in Sunday's B final.

Two-time Paralympian Blake Haxton (Columbus, Ohio/Ohio State University) also finished fourth in his repechage of the PR1 men's single sculls and will now race in Sunday's B final for overall places 7-12. With two to advance to the final, Spain's Javier Reja Munoz took the lead off the start before Great Britain's Benjamin Pritchard inched into the top spot as the scullers hit the midway point. Pritchard then slowly pulled away from the Spanish sculler in the third 500 before going on to win by nearly 19 seconds, finishing in a time of 9:14.61. Reja Munoz took the second qualification spot by 14 seconds over Russia's Aleksey Chuvashev, finishing in a 9:33.42. Haxton clocked a 10:28.82 to finish fourth and will take on scullers from Russia, Sri Lanka, Germany, Mexico and Nigeria in the B final.

One U.S. crew will be in the medal races on Sunday, as the PR3 four with coxswain of Karen Petrik (Glastonbury, Conn./University of Rhode Island), John Tanguay (Pennington, N.J./Columbia University), Charley Nordin (Alameda, Calif./Gonzaga University), Dani Hansen (Patterson, Calif./University of Washington), and Allie Reilly (North Kingstown, R.I./University of Rhode Island) will look to end the British crew's lock on the gold medal.

The U.S. boat, which has won six consecutive silver medals at the world and Paralympic level, dominated its heat on Friday, defeating the Australian crew by nearly 11 seconds. Great Britain won the other heat by almost 17 seconds over France, setting up what should be a great battle for gold on Sunday morning. Australia, Italy, France, and Israel with be joining the two crews in the final after advancing from today's repechages.

Racing concludes on Sunday with the A and B finals starting at 9:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday). Sunday's racing will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com. Individuals wishing to watch will need to login through their television provider to view the online streaming.

Click here for the full schedule on the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 website, and click here for USRowing's Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 coverage page.