Rachel Morris started the gold rush when she turned an appalling start, as she termed it, into a final 350m surge in the arms-shoulders single scull to add Paralympic rowing gold to the gold she won in cycling in 2008.

Tom Aggar produced a fiercely determined performance to add bronze in the equivalent men鈥檚 event, holding off the 2012 Paralympic Champion from China in a race won by the Ukraine.

c. Simon Way

Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley lived up to the promise they showed in winning their heat in a World Best Time to win gold in the mixed double scull.

Pamela Relph became a back-to-back Paralympic Champion in the mixed coxed four when she and Grace Clough, Daniel Brown, James Fox and cox Oliver James brought home gold in the final race of a fabulous 2016 for the GB Rowing Team.

Grace Clough, Dan Brown, Pamela Relph, cox Oliver James and James Fox won LTA mixed coxed four gold at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team Performance Director, said: 鈥淭oday聽has been exceptional for our programme. To be top of the medal table was our first objective and we are undisputed leaders of that.

“Last year at World Championships we showed the standard of our squad by getting three silvers and a gold and we have converted two of those silvers to golds here. That鈥檚 no discredit toTom Aggar who got a great bronze.聽I鈥檓 proud of the rowers.

鈥淎s ever I鈥檓 deeply grateful to the National Lottery without which none of this would be possible.”

Click on the expander boxes below for race reports, reaction and results in full.

The post Three golds and a bronze on epic day for GB Rowers appeared first on 91桃色.

Rachel Morris will be the first GB rower to race on the Lagoa de Freitas tomorrow at the 2016 Paralympic Games when her heat of the arms-shoulders women鈥檚 single scull starts at 12.50 BST.

Morris is drawn in lane 1 in a heat which features former World Champion, 2015 World finalist and local favourite Claudia Santos of Brazil.

The Guildford rower has made remarkable progress since transferring to the sport from hand-cycling in early 2013 and whilst she admitted to always having a few pre-race nerves she said: 鈥淚 will focus on the moment and the processes and only worry about my own performance鈥�.

She also had praise for the Rio set-up:聽聽 鈥淭he Village and the Lagoa venue are both really top quality and the Rio committee have done a fantastic job getting everything ready for us鈥�.

Tom Aggar races in the equivalent men鈥檚 event and is also a World silver medallist and 2008 Paralympic Champion but underlined the progress made by the sport since winning that inaugural Paralympic gold in Beijing.

He said:聽 聽鈥淚t鈥檚 crazy, I was only thinking the other day that I am one of the few survivors of the Beijing Games in terms of athletes.聽 The sport has changed dramatically since then. The standards just to qualify are pretty high and to medal the standard has moved on too.

鈥淭he sport has become more professional across all the events and the bandings are so much tighter. Medals are so much more hard fought and the races are much closer so from a spectator point of view, it is exciting racing to watch.聽 But when you are out there it鈥檚 really stroke by stroke, side by side, top racing鈥�.

The Londoner races in heat two at 13.30 BST and will line up on the start line with聽 the reigning World Champion, Erik Horrie of Australia, with only one place available in Sunday鈥檚 final and all other contenders racing a repechage on Saturday.

Heat two of the trunk-arms mixed double scull could also be a GB v Australia affair.聽 Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley are World silver medallists but a very new crew on the international scene.

Gavin Bellis and Kathryn Ross beat the GB duo by just under a second in France last year to take World gold setting the scene for an exciting heat tomorrow including contenders from China and the Ukraine. Only one crew can go through to the finals.

Rowles only took up rowing in early 2015 after 聽switching from athletics.聽 She has also juggled A level studies this year with training for Rio.

Recently she talked of聽 her passion for her 鈥渘ew鈥� sport and said:聽 鈥淭he first moment that I got in a boat I knew that it was for me. It was amazing, I loved the sense of freedom and, maybe, if I鈥檇 carried on with athletics I would have made progress but this the sport for me鈥�.

Pamela Relph, Grace Clough, Daniel Brown, James Fox and cox Oliver James are the World Champions in the mixed coxed four and will keep a wary eye on China and South Africa who could prove the main opposition in the heat.聽 They will be favourites, though, to move into Sunday鈥檚 final direct.

Channel 4 will carry a highlights package of tomorrow鈥檚 racing in their afternoon show between 16.00 鈥� 19.00 BST.聽 Fans can follow the action through live graphics on the www.worldrowing.com

Results will be posted on Twitter via @gbrowingteam

The post The draw is done and the Rio scene is set appeared first on 91桃色.

Tom Aggar, competing at his third Paralympic Games in Rio in the men鈥檚 single scull (ASM1x) having won gold at Beijing 2008, says that he and his rowing team-mates have settled in well to the Athletes Village and the venue.

鈥淲e have settled in well and made a good transition into the Village from our training camps. I feel pretty good and relaxed and we are impressed with what Rio has had to offer so far鈥�, he said.

Pamela Relph, defending champion in the mixed para-rowing coxed four (LTAMix4+), was also effusive in her praise this morning.

She said: “It鈥檚 been amazing.聽 It has been much, much better and much smoother than we were all expecting. I think there were some horror stories going around but we have had a very smooth run-in.

鈥淲e are really happy with the village. It鈥檚 a beautiful, beautiful village.聽 It鈥檚 really well designed and thought out and we have a stunning venue. I think we have hit the jackpot with our competition venue”

First-time Paralympian Grace Clough, competing in the same crew as Relph, also talked of the relaxed focus on training when she said:聽 鈥淧ersonally I haven鈥檛 thought about racing yet.聽 I鈥檓 just taking it all in.聽 Maybe in a few days the nerves will start to kick in but not yet鈥�.

Relph also countered any suggestion of mounting pressure in defending GB鈥檚 crown in the mixed coxed para-rowing four when she said:聽 鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely been going through my mind, the possibility of winning back to back gold medals but, as Grace [Clough] has said already, we are in such a lucky position to be able to be focussed as a crew but really relaxed as well鈥�.

Racing starts in Rio on Friday running from 12.30 to 14.30 BST with heats in all four boat classes featuring GB contenders 鈥� the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 single sculls, the mixed double scull and the mixed coxed four.

Details of Channel 4 TV coverage are to follow.

The post Aggar and Relph impressed by Rio appeared first on 91桃色.

Henley Royal Regatta provided the backdrop as the nine GB rowers for the Rio Paralympic Games took part in a row-past to celebrate their announcement today by the British Paralympic Association.

The list of named rowers was led by Grace Clough, Daniel Brown, Pamela Relph, James Fox and cox Oliver James, the reigning World Champions in the mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+).

Great Britain has claimed the World Championship title in this boat for three consecutive years since London 2012.

The 2015 World Championship final was one of the most thrilling of the overall event with the GB four holding off the Americans by a narrow margin. This event is increasingly competitive on the global stage.

Relph is the only returning member of the victorious gold medal crew from London 2012.聽 A physics graduate from University of Birmingham, Relph took up rowing after arthritis led to reduced movement in her wrists and ended her planned Army career.

Relph said: 鈥淚 am over the moon to be selected for my second Paralympic Games and feel so excited and nervous at the prospect of trying to defend my gold medal from London 2012. This season has been the toughest yet and I am looking forward to going to Rio to race the rest of the world. The team that has been selected is far stronger than any I have been a part of in my six years of rowing for GB and I am proud to be a part of such a talented squad.鈥�

James Fox and cox Oliver James are triple World Champions with Relph.聽 James took up coxing whilst at the University of Warwick and Fox, a former non-disabled club rower, classified into para-rowing because of a congenital ankle condition.

James said:聽 鈥淚t’s exciting to be selected to go to the Games in Rio and I’m looking forward to knuckling down over the next two months before the Games to make sure we bring back the result that we have been training so hard for over聽the last聽four years”.

Fox added:聽 鈥淚t is a real honour to be selected for the GB Paralympic Rowing Team. Racing at World Championships is exciting but being selected to race at a Paralympic Games is something special. It is my first Paralympics and I can’t wait to get out to Rio and crack on鈥�.

Grace Clough and Dan Brown are the most recent additions to the crew, joining the boat in 2014 for the World Championships that year and contributing to World titles in both 2014 and 2015. Clough 鈥� who graduated from University of Leeds with a first in Sociology 鈥� was first introduced to disability sport in 2013 when she attended a ParalympicsGB SportsFest event at the EIS in Sheffield.

Brown said: 聽I’m excited about being selected to race in Rio. Things have been going well in training and I’m looking forward to showing what we can do as a crew come September.

Selected for his third consecutive Games, Tom Aggar will compete in the arms-shoulders (ASM1x) men鈥檚 single scull event. Aggar is the longest-serving of the para-rowers currently on the squad. He started rowing in 2007 and made history as the first ever Paralympic champion in the men鈥檚 arms-only single scull when he won gold at Beijing 2008, where the sport made its Paralympic debut. He is a 2014 and 2015 World silver medallist and will be seeking to add to his medal collection in Rio.

Aggar said:聽 鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge privilege to be selected to represent your country at a Paralympic Games, and it means even more to be able to say it for a third time. Competing at the Games at the highest level is an exciting time to showcase our sport and brings with it tremendous personal pride鈥�.

Also selected today is Rachel Morris, who has previously competed for ParalympicsGB in cycling at two Paralympic Games, winning gold in Beijing and bronze in London, and who now turns her attention to the women鈥檚 single scull (ASW1x).

Already a World silver medallist in her new sport from the 2015 World Championships, Morris will be seeking to add her to Paralympic medal tally when she competes in Rio this summer. 聽On the eve of being selected, Morris won world cup gold in Poznan, beating the reigning World Champion.

Morris said today: “I’m so proud to be wearing ParalympicsGB kit again, to be representing my country is such a privilege. I’m so happy to have had such an incredible few years changing from a cyclist to a rower and had the chance & people believing in me. I would like to thank the GB Rowing Team support staff and Tom Dyson for coaching me and helping me achieve new goals and getting me into the position I am now, both mentally and physically.

“My family have been such a support by providing understanding and calmness as I’m challenged further and further to set new levels.鈥�

A relatively new partnership in the mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) is selected, with Laurence Whiteley joining up with Lauren Rowles.

Whiteley had competed in a non-Paralympic class boat while the GB Rowing Team undertook a two-year-long search for a partner who could compete alongside him in the double.

Teenager Rowles was spotted by GB Rowing Team staff by chance at Stoke Mandeville and transitioned from athletics where she was a successful wheelchair racer having competed for England at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in the T53/54 1,500m. The duo first competed internationally at the 2015 World Championships, where they won silver.

The pairing have not raced internationally this season while Rowles has been taking her A-levels.

Rowles said:聽 鈥淏eing selected to represent your country at a Paralympic Games is the biggest honour and wouldn鈥檛 be achievable without the support I鈥檝e received from the coaches and specialists on the GB Rowing Team and also my mother who continuously supports me. 聽It fills me with a great sense of pride to be part of such a powerful and successful team and I am very much looking forward to producing a good performance in Rio鈥�.

Whiteley added: 鈥淎fter what was a very uncertain start to my first Paralympic cycle, missing the first two World Championships due to not having a partner to row with in the trunk and arms mixed double scull, I am delighted to finish this Paralympic cycle by being selected to row for Great Britain in the TAMx2.鈥�

Penny Briscoe, Chef de Mission of ParalympicsGB, said:

鈥淭he GB Rowing Team is known internationally for producing consistently outstanding crews and this para-rowing team is absolutely no different 鈥� today I am delighted that I am announcing such a strong team to join ParalympicsGB for Rio 2016.

鈥淭hese rowers have proved themselves on the international stage and I am confident they will do the same at the Paralympic Games. I would like to thank all their coaches and support staff at GB Rowing for all their hard work to produce this team.鈥�

Sir David Tanner, 91桃色 Performance Director said:

鈥淚 am confident that this team will prove the strongest that GB has ever sent to a Paralympic Games.聽 Our聽para rowers have worked daily with the GB Olympic Squad since London 2012 and this integration has produced real dividends in improved performance.聽I am sure that our four boats will do GB proud out in Rio.鈥�

Louise Kingsley, Team Leader for Rowing, said:

鈥淚 am extremely proud that we are able to announce a full para-rowing team today, this has only been achieved through the dedication and hard work of all of our coaches and support staff. The quality of international competition has increased significantly since London 2012, we had a great World Championships in 2015 however, some very good new crews have achieved qualification slots this year for the Paralympic Games so we will leave no stone unturned as we challenge for places on the podium in Rio.鈥�

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With the second of the winter assessments out of the way, it鈥檚 time to give you the low down on who鈥檚 who and what鈥檚 what ahead of this summer’s racing.

All three boat classes (arms and shoulders [AS] single scull, trunk and arms [TA] mixed double scull and legs, trunk and arms [LTA]mixed coxed four) were racing this time round, although the format for each class differed slightly.

Tom Aggar historically represents GB in the AS men鈥檚 single and in fact has dominated this event nationally and has worn the vest at every World Championship and Paralympic Games since the debut of Paralympic rowing at the 2008 Beijing Games.

At the assessment, he time-trialled along with Rachel Morris who has represented GB in the AS women鈥檚 single at the last two World Championships after transferring from hand-cycling a few years ago. They raced down the track against the clock and put down a strong marker to push on from for the rest of the season.

Laurence Whiteley was a lone ranger looking for companionship in 2013 and 2014 but has since found a female double scull partner to team up with in the form of Lauren Rowles who transferred from wheelchair track racing after competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Together they won a silver medal in the TA double at last year鈥檚s World Championships after training together for just four months. This season Laurence has competition for his place in the boat and will be seat racing against Scott Meenagh, an eager Scotsman who joined our squad after sustaining injuries serving in Afghanistan, and the recent assessment was the first of those races.

In the coxed four, things are being shaken up a bit. I have stroked the boat at the last three World Championships but there is no reason to say that is the fastest combination and so we鈥檝e been playing a bit of musical chairs.

For the last fortnight or so Pam, Gold medallist from London 2012 and four times World Champion, has been stroking the four with me sitting behind in the three seat and on training camp we tried a few other combinations too.

There are still four seats in this particular game of musical chairs though which is a relief. We seat raced this time around too but, for us, it is as much about going fast in every order and combination as it is about finding which individuals make the boat go fastest at the moment.

The results from the recent assessment won鈥檛 necessarily lead to selection for Rio but they will give our coaches and selectors a general impression of how things are going. A kind of data collection exercise, if you like, ahead of final trials. If nothing else it certainly provided a chance to open the lungs after a winter of rate 18!

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The arms-only single sculler, who won silver at the 2015 Worlds, came home in a fast time. Her performance came in the teeth of conditions that were on the cusp of rowable.

鈥淩achel was really exceptional today and raced superbly. She probably had the worst of the conditions, too鈥�, said the GB Rowing Team lead para-rowing coach,聽Tom Dyson.

Morris transferred from hand-cycling to rowing as recently as late 2013, having won Paralympic gold at Beijing 2008 in her previous sport.

Today she topped a list which saw聽Laurence Whiteley, of Northallerton, from the 2015 Worlds silver medal trunk-arms double scull on a calculation based on the gold medal time in Rio. HIs double scull partner, Lauren Rowles, still only 17 and a recent convert from wheelchair track racing, was fourth.

Grace Clough, from Sheffield, and Aylesbury鈥檚 Pam Relph, World Champions in the mixed coxed four in France in September, teamed up in a women鈥檚 pair and put in a an eye-catching performance to take third slot on the rankings.

鈥淭hat was one of the strongest LTA [legs, trunks, arms category] performances we have ever seen from a women鈥檚 pair鈥�, said Dyson. 鈥淭hey were very quick鈥�. Relph is also a reigning Paralympic Champion.

Tricky weather conditions meant that the assessment was truncated from the originally planned 2km time trial to a 1km course instead.

Six of GB鈥檚 top contenders were also unable to trial because of illness earlier this week in the squad –聽Tom Aggar,聽James Fox,聽Dan Brown, Scott Meenagh, Jordan Beecher and Sam Murray were all ruled out on medical grounds.

TOP FOUR FINISHERS

Rachel Morris
Laurence Whiteley
Grace Glough and聽Pam Relph
Lauren Rowles

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GB ROWING TEAM MEDALLISTS – 2015 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS PARA-ROWING EVENTS

GOLD

PARA-ROWING

MIXED

Coxed four (LTA 4+)

Grace Clough聽(Nottingham RC/Sheffield/21.06.91)
Daniel Brown聽(Upper Thames BC/Reading/29.11.82)
Pamela Relph聽(Leander Club/Aylesbury/14.11.89)
James Fox聽(Univ of London/Peterborough/02.05.92)
Oliver James聽(cox) (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/05.01.90)
Coach:聽Tom Dyson

SILVER

Trunk/-arms double scull (TA2x)

Laurence Whiteley聽(Tees RC/Northallerton/29.08.91)
Lauren Rowles (Marlow RC/Birmingham/ 24.04.98)
Coach: Nick Baker

MEN

Arms/-shoulders single scull (ASM 1x)

Tom Aggar聽(Marlow RC/Maidenhead/24.05.84)
Coach: Nick Baker

WOMEN

Arms/-shoulders single scull (ASW 1x)

Rachel Morris聽(Guildford RC/Farnham/25.04.79)
Coach:聽Tom Dyson

SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE
===================================================================
CONTACT DETAILS

For background information about the The GB Rowing Team contact the Press office via聽comms@gbrowingteam.org.uk聽or 07831 755351

For picture requests please contact:聽聽GBRTpressoffice@gbrowingteam.org.uk

GB Rowing Team website, including full rower biogs:聽www.gbrowingteam.org.uk

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The GB mixed coxed four won Paralympic rowing gold on home water at Eton Dorney to end an emotional day on a high note.

The ParalympicsGB rowers had qualified all three crews for the medal finals but there was a shock start for the team and the crowd when reigning World and Paralympic Champion Tom Aggar finished fourth, outside the medals, in the Arms and Shoulders only single scull behind China, Australia and Russia.

The Trunk and Arms mixed double of Army Captain Nick Beighton and Sam Scowen – who only started racing together last year – produced a great performance to also finish fourth, just two-tenths of a second behind the USA in bronze, with the Chinese double winning gold and France silver.

Then came the four. Their German rivals set a new World Best Time of 3:15.91 in the heats and took the lead in the final.

But the British crew of Pamela Relph, Naomi Riches, David Smith, James Roe and cox Lily van den Broecke reeled them in and hit the front just before they started passing the grandstands for a memorable, raucous finish to the Paralympic regatta.

The GB Rowing Squad is supported by the National Lottery.

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