Today, 2nd September 2022 is the 10th anniversary of Marlow’s Naomi Riches winning her Paralympian rowing gold medal. At MyMarlow we thought this amazing achievement, which led to our Golden Postbox, warranted commemorating with a look back at Naomi’s London 2012 success, via our own coverage:
We first mentioned Naomi in a 2012 Paralympics preview article on 30th August 2012. We noted Naomi started competitive rowing training in 2004, and just four months later took gold at the World Championships in mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+). By 2012, Naomi was five-times World Champion, a bronze medallist at the Beijing Paralympic games and was aiming for Paralympic rowing gold at Eton Dorney lake alongside the rest of her crew (Pamela Relph, David Smith, James Roe and cox Lily van den Broecke). (read in full here)
On Friday 31 Aug 2012 Naomi and her crew stormed to victory in their heat, sending them straight to the final on Sunday 2nd September at 10.30am. (Link to our Facebook post).
And… “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….. reeled them in and hit the front just before they started passing the grandstands for a memorable, raucous finish to the Paralympic regatta.” (text from the British Rowing write up)
On the day of the victory, the Royal Mail published a design for a commemorative stamp…. and confirmed they would be painting a post-box Gold the very next day! (Link to our Facebook post)
True to their word the Royal Mail arrived on the 3rd September 2012 to paint our High Street postbox gold, as it still remains to this day. (Link to our Facebook post)
Naomi is still a committed rower, and is Chair of Henley Women’s Regatta. Her Paralympic success was also a platform leading to a successful career as a Motivational Speaker and Performance Coach.
Naomi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naomiriches_mbe
Motivational speaking: https://speakerbuzz.co.uk/speaker/naomi-riches/
Thanks again for our post-box, and congratulations on the 10 year winiversary!!
