Author: bhaxton

Blake’s Tokyo Paralympic Schedule and How to Watch:

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Blake is the only member of Team USA’s olympic team competing in two different sports in the 32nd Olympiad hosted in Tokyo, Japan. He is competing in both the men’s single skulls rowing event and the sprint canoe. Here is his schedule and some tips for watching:

Rowing:

Date and Time: Thursday, August 26, 8:30PM – 11:10PM (Eastern Standard Time)

  • PR1 Men’s Single Sculls – PR1M1x Heats

Date and Time: Friday, August 27, 8:30PM-11:10PM (Eastern Standard Time)

  • PR1 Men’s Single Sculls – PR1M1x Repechages

Date and Time: Saturday, August 28, 8:30PM-11:20PM (Eastern Standard Time)

  • PR1 Men’s Single Sculls – PR1M1x Finals
  • PR1 Men’s Single Sculls – PR1M1x Victory Ceremony

SpRint Canoe

Date and Time: Wednesday, September 1, 8:30PM-10:40PM (Eastern Standard Time)

  • Men’s VL2 Heats

Date and Time: Friday, September 3, 8:30PM-10:30PM (Eastern Standard Time)

  • Men’s VL2 Semifinals
  • Men’s VL2 Final
  • Men’s VL2 Victory Ceremony

How to Watch:

NBC will air all of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Events can be seen on NBC, NBCSN, the Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com, the NBC Sports app and on Peacock. The apps are the best way to find specific sports like Blake’s rowing and sprint canoe events!

2018 World Championships: Plovdiv, Bulgaria

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September 16, 2018; Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Last month, Blake traveled to Plovdiv, Bulgaria to compete in the 2018 World Championships. This year’s World Championship PR1 Single Skulls event featured not only a competitive field of athletes, but also represented the first edition of racing with new rules governing how athletes would be strapped into the boats. Against this backdrop, the races did not disappoint.

Blake entered his opening heat against five of the world’s elite para-rowers. There are two ways to advance from the opening heat. The path of least resistance is to finish among the top two positions in your respective heat. Doing so results in automatic advancement to the semi-final. Alternatively, if an athlete fails to finish among the top two in their heat, they get another chance in a repechage heat. The top two finishers from the repechage heat also advance to the semi-finals,  but this requires going through a second heat while other racers finishing in the top two positions of their opening heat rest and save energy.

Blake finished comfortably in second place in his opening heat, finishing behind Russia’s representative, and a full 30 seconds ahead of the third place finisher from Nigeria. This was good enough to advance Blake straight to the semi-final without going through the repechage.

The semi-finals featured the World’s twelve best PR1 single skull para-rowers split into two heats with six competitors in each heat.  To advance from the semi-final, rowers must finish in the top three of their heat. Failure to do so means you are eliminated from contention for the World Championship final heat. Blake featured in the first semi-final, comfortably finishing second in his heat and advancing to the World Championship final heat.

The final featured the world’s six best para-rowers. The final heat was an exciting climax to a wonderful World Championship event. In the end, Blake edged out the Brazilian athlete by a little under a second to secure a fourth place finish. This ties Blake’s best ever finish at the World Championships.

Watch the full race video here: 2018 World Championship Final Heat