Canyon Lake Paralympian finishes 10th in Tokyo

Canyon Lake Paralympic rower Russell Gernaat and Los Angeles partner Laura Goodkind pushed hard in their three races in Tokyo last week, but failed to qualify for the finals where medals were awarded.

Russell competed in the PR2 Mix Doubles Scull rowing event, finished 10th, enjoyed the experience and is now focused on the 2024 Games in Paris.

Russell reflected on the progress he and Laura made during the last couple of years and how he is looking forward to being competitive for medals in the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.

“It’s a packed field, a lot of competition,” he said after his final race Saturday. “Brazil and Australia beat us by 20 seconds at the 2019 world championships, but not today, not yesterday. We’ve really closed that gap. So I feel good about our racing overall; we’ve come a long way and we’re still looking for more improvement. I definitely want to go to France and see if we can put a bid in for a medal.”

Russell Gernaat and mixed rowing partner Laura Goodkind compete in the first heat of the PR2 Mix Doubles Scull rowing event at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics last week. They finished in fourth place in the race. Photos provided by US Rowing.

Russell’s Paralympics began on Thursday last week in the heats race. He and Laura finished fifth in their first heat of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. Only the first place finisher in the two heats automatically advances to the finals.

Their Paralympic medal hopes were still alive, however, as the remaining 10 teams competed again in the repechages. The top two boats from each repechage make the final alongside the two boats that won the heats.

Russell and Laura led the field in the first heat off the line before fading to fifth, according to US Rowing.

“We had a plan to go out early and go to the bridge and see where everyone was sitting,” Russell told row2k after the race. “We were in the heat with Great Britain, we knew that they’re the fastest boat out there.”

Russell’s quest for a medal in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics ended, though, after a fourth-place finish in the repechages portion of the mixed double rowing competition. Only the top two in the race advanced to the A finals, where the medals are won. With the fourth place finish, Russell and Laura went on to compete in a non-medal B finals.

The repechages race Friday night was tight and Russell’s boat finished the 2,000-meter race with a time of 8:26.17, only five seconds behind qualifying for the medal finals. Russell and Laura were right behind the leaders all the way down the course, but could not pull into contention.

“Actually, it was a really good race,” Russell told row2k. “I think one of the things that we’re happy about is some of those boats like 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 we’re just really happy with how it all turned out.”

Russell said racing against the international competition has been an exciting challenge. It’s been awhile since they have raced in a competitive race.

“We go to Chula Vista and we’ve got our coach in the launch and there’s no one else around…it’s just us,” he said. “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.”

Out of medal contention, the final race was a consolation race to determine the final standings.

Russell and Laura finished in fourth place in the non-medal B final, placing 10th overall.

“We wanted to get a good start and unfortunately we didn’t,” Russell told row2k. “Then we were like, alright, catch up mode. Then it became let’s just stick with the pack and see if we can put something together at the end of the race. We would’ve liked to have done a move more in the middle of the course, but it was a great race. It was a lot of fun.”

The final race Saturday night found Russell’s boat almost 15 seconds behind the B final winner. They finished with a time of 9:11.63, less than a second behind the third place finishers from France.

“I know what it takes to medal; it’s going to take a lot of crazy training,” he said. “A year ago I said if we can’t hold a 2:05 on the water, we’re not making the A final, and we did a 2:06 yesterday. So I think in France if you’re not close to a 2:00 on the water, you’re not going to the A final medals round. So that’s the goal.”

The Paris 2024 Paralympics will begin three years from yesterday, on Aug. 28, 2024.