Riches focused on rowing gold

Naomi Riches first started to get serious about rowing in April 2004 when she attended the London Regatta.

Just three months later she found herself clad in Great Britain lycra and sitting on the start line of the World Rowing Championships in Banyoles, Spain as one fifth of the mixed adaptive coxed four crew Great Britain team.

Prior to rowing Naomi had a distinguished sporting past becoming national disabled swimming champion at the tender age of 12 and such is her sporting pedigree that the team won gold in Spain and suddenly she was a world champion at 21.

“It was really unbelievable,” she recalled. “I couldn’t believe how quickly it all happened.

“One minute I’m at college and the next I’m a World Champion.”

Since then Naomi’s rowing stock has grown and there was little surprise when she was given the nod to be part of the Great Britain Paralympic team for Beijing.

Despite the fact that she has been World Champion three times however, she never felt the announcement was a foregone conclusion.

“You can never be completely sure at this level,” she said. “Rowing is such a demanding sport that there’s always that possibility of an injury or something not going to plan.

“It was fantastic when the coach gathered us together and told us the news. For me it was just such a relief that I was finally going after four years of training.”

Naomi was born with an eye condition called cone dystrophy, which limits her vision, particularily in sunlight and she is joined in the boat with three other rowers with differing disabilities.

The four will compete in the LTA (leg, trunks and arms) coxed four event and is also made up of James Morgan who has a fused ankle, Vicki Hansford who lost her right leg due to cancer, Alastair McKean who doesn’t have full use of his right arm and experienced able-bodied cox Alan Sherman.

“I don’t think you could have picked five more different opposites if you tried,” Riches said of her teammates.

“We are all so different but we’re a really good combination.”

It will be the first time that the adaptive coxed four will be an event at the Paralympics and with the sport in its infancy the changes in the sport have been substantial.

“When we first started training with the senior team it took a bit of getting used to, for us and them, but it’s amazing how well we all get on now.”

So as a Paralympian does she feel that she has had to work even harder than other able bodied athletes?

“It’s as hard as you want it to be,” she replied. “It doesn’t matter whether you are disabled or not, its about how hard you want to push yourself to achieve your goals.

“It’s no less or no more difficult- there are just different barriers to get around.”

The team remain in a confident mood after a good season as four, although Riches is remaining watchful.

“Obviously you can never make predictions when it comes to Paralympics and the standard is really high, but we’re confident we can come home with gold.”

“Last year we missed out at the World Championships in Munich to the Germans so we’ve got to make sure that we don’t take anything for granted.

“Our main rivals are Italy, USA and Canada and the Netherlands have a good boat together. It’s going to tough.”

Yet tough is a word that rowers are accustomed to with the rowing finals’ day less than two months away and with the training at its most intense.

“We’re being kept pretty busy and training six days a week. And we’re going out to Spain in August for 16 days and then back to training in Caversham for 10 when we’re back.”

But the exhausitve schedule will all be worth it if they return home with the gold.