8:20am Saturday 20th September 2008
MARLOW Rowing Club member Naomi Riches won a bronze medal at the Beijing Paralympics The 25-year-old, who is registered blind, achieved her success just four years after taking up the sport.
Riches, a former National Disabled Swimming Champion at the age of 12 and a three times rowing world champion, was part of the British crew which finished behind gold medallists Italy and second placed USA in the LTA (legs, trunk, arms) coxed four.
Their medal-winning performance helped GB top the rowing table.
Richards says she was inspired by the form of the nation’s able-bodied rowers in Beijing just a month earlier.
Her Marlow Rowing Club colleague Zac Purchase struck gold while Katherine Grainger won silver and High Wycombe’s Mark Hunter also won gold.
Riches said: “It’s been an inspiration.”
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