Biography

I started rowing aged 17. I got into the sport by pure chance when my family moved house to Twickenham in Middlesex. I had always participated in different sports at school and at local clubs, but much to my annoyance I never excelled beyond average ability. I wanted to take up the opportunity of living nearby the River Thames and looked into trying a water sport. I opened the Yellow Pages and looked in the recreational section for sports available on the river. The options were rowing and canoeing. 50/50 I opted for trying rowing first. There were two local clubs Twickenham and Kingston so I took a stroll down to Twickenham Rowing Club as it was nearer to home. However, the club is located on an island in the middle of the river and at that time the bridge connecting it was having works done on it. I couldn’t access the other side, so I ended up going to Kingston Rowing Club to find out what the sport was about. Looking back I feel that it must have been fate for I didn’t know at the time I was walking into one of the most successful women’s rowing clubs with one of the best junior coach in the country.

Within 8 months, whilst at the same time
as studying for my A Levels, I went from novice standard to being selected for Great Britain for the 1998 Junior World Championships. This was in the pair, the top ranked women’s boat. Unfortunately I suffered a back injury a few days before the competition and only just managed to get into the boat to compete. We finished in second place but to add insult to injury we were disqualified for a steering violation. The following year, my first year as an under 23 athlete, I concentrated on sculling and placed fourth in the single at the Under 23 World Championships against a very strong field of much older athletes. My second year as an Under 23 athlete saw me progress and I brought home a gold medal and becameWorld Champion in the pair.

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