[UPDATE – 31 Aug 1.30pm, Naomi and the rest of the mixed coxed four crew storm to victory in their heat, sending them straigh to the finals on Sunday 2nd! RESULT! ]
With the London 2012 Paralympics now underway, Great Britain’s mixed coxed four are aiming for Paralympic rowing gold at Eton Dorney. In the crew is Naomi Riches – a member of Marlow Rowing Club since 2006, and Marlow resident since 2008.
Naomi (known as “Norm” amongst her rowing colleagues) is five-times World Champion in the mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+), and was a bronze medallist at the Beijing Paralympic games.
Whilst she was at the Royal National Institute for the Blind College in Worcester, Naomi was introduced to rowing – but only started training seriously in 2004, and just four months later took gold at the World Championships in LTAMix4+.
The GB Team are favourites for Gold based on recent form, and Naomi told us “When it comes to my crew I am confident we can execute a good performance and I know we are all in the best physical shape.” In fact, they did not attend the opening ceremony since it would have been too close to their first race, some 36 hours later.
Referring to the famous “Dorney Roar”, Naomi added ” I hope we will still be able to hear Lily our cox! I am sure it will be incredible to hear that Dorney roar and we’ll try to take some positive energy from that.”
Follow Naomi and send her a message of support on her Twitter page @NaomiRiches2012
There is more information on the mixed Coxed Four crew on the BBC sport website
Times for the mixed coxed four rowing events are as follows:
- Heats – Fri 31 Aug 11:30 (winning boat from each heat progresses straight to final A) Naomi’s heat is at 11.50am
- Repechages – Sat 01 Sep 11:30 (a series of further races to qualify boats, with the best four boats from the repechage going through to final A)
- Finals – Sun 02 Sep2 10:30 (Final A determines the medals, with the others competing in final B which ranks boats from seven to 12).
