Two thousand meters is a long way to row in a para single. It's even further when the race is being run under a bright Florida sun with midmorning temperatures closing in on 90 degrees.
Still, Blake Haxton would rather row the full distance than the one thousand meters he has been rowing for the last three international seasons in the arms and shoulders single. "I like it better, actually. I really do. Even if it was hot," said Haxton, just after finishing third in his single heat Tuesday morning, a finish that sends the 2016 Paralympian to the reps Wednesday.
"I still have some things to learn about it, but it is more of a rowing race than a bench pulling contest," he said. "Aside from all the stuff about being able to row in a regular regatta, it is more of an indication of who is moving a boat.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not thrilled about the race I just rowed," he said. "It wasn't great. I planned to go out a little slower than I normally do, and then see if I could move out through the middle. But, I just got outrun."
Haxton was one of two US para athletes to start racing Tuesday. Also racing was Hallie Smith in the women's arms and shoulders single. She finished second behind Germany's Sylvia Pille-Steppart, but second was enough to advance into the Sunday final.
"It was a really great, hot race," Smith said. "I tried keeping pace with her the whole time, but she just pulled away in the second thousand meters. I have a lot of work to do on Sunday, but I am so excited to have made the final right off the bat. I'm usually a 'second half, pull away' racer, but I have some work to do."
Three other para races were on the Tuesday schedule, but all three were test races put into the program at the request of some of the coaches who wanted to gauge the new distance and the course. The US mixed legs, trunk, and arms four with coxswain opted not to row and will start their racing in the Thursday heat.
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