RIO de JANEIRO, Brazil - Jaclyn Smith has been thinking about what it would be like to race in the 2016 Paralympic Games for the last four years.
Friday morning, Smith got the chance to live that moment when she and the rest of her Paralympic coxed four went to the start line on the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas race course for the opening heat of their event.
"It was really nice to get on the line," she said. "It's something we've been waiting for, not only for the past year, but the last four years. It was really nice to finally get out there and put our race to the test."
Smith (Williston Park, N.Y.) and her teammates: coxswain Jenny Sichel (Clifton, N.J.), Dorian Weber (Manhasset, N.Y.), Zachary Burns (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Danielle Hansen (Patterson, Calif.) passed that test, won their heat and advanced directly to the Sunday medals race.
Three other U.S. crews - the men's and women's arms and shoulders single sculls and the trunk and arms mixed double sculls - also raced, but with only one crew advancing directly to the final, all three will race again Saturday with the chance to advance.
The crews will need a top-two finish to gain a place in the A final and race for medals.
"We kind of knew what we were going out there to do," said Smith. "We wanted to race our race and not worry about anyone else. We came in first, which was great."
The U.S. crossed the line in 3:21.65. Great Britain won the first of the two heats in 3:25.08. Those two crews will wait for the results of the Saturday repechages to see which of the other 10 crews will join them in the final.
"I felt very confident out there," Hansen said. "It was definitely over pretty quick. It's always faster when it's race day. It felt good."
Racing first on Friday was single sculler Jacqui Kapinowski (Tequesta, Fla.). After a minor equipment issue at the start, Kapinowski finished in fourth in 5:48.69. China won in 5:21.04. Israel was second in 5:21.36, and Norway finished third in 5:26.07.
Kapinowski will race Saturday against Italy, Belarus, Israel and Hungary.
Blake Haxton (Columbus, Ohio) will also be back in action Saturday after finishing third in his heat of the men's single. Haxton finished in 5:00.57. Ukraine won the heat in 4:44.70, and China was second in 4:59.61.
Haxton races Saturday against The Netherlands, Great Britain, Lithuania and Germany.
"I had a pretty good row," Haxton said. "I was a little slow through the middle; it got a little bouncy. But honestly, I feel pretty good. I executed the plan pretty well. I think I have a little bit more speed. That was probably the faster, deeper heat. Tomorrow, I have a pretty good draw and top-two is the name of the game. So I'm going to go home and rest up. But I feel pretty good."
In the trunk and arms mixed double sculls, Helman Roman (Miami, Fla.) and Laura Goodkind (Santa Monica, Calif.) finished fifth in their heat in 4:33.58 and will race in the Saturday reps against Brazil, China, Australia and Latvia.
France won the heat in 3:59.32. The Netherlands was second in 4:03.07, and Brazil was third in 4:04.26.
"It felt like we were pretty well in sync, and we gave our all," Goodkind said. "We'll change up the race plan for tomorrow a little and see how it goes."
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