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Lauren Rowles achieves her dream with a new world record at the Paralympics
The lack of Marseilles winds meant that the medal race was postponed whilst the boats were on the water.
By Tom Harle in Paris
Bromsgrove rower Lauren Rowles basked in achieving her lifelong dream of breaking the eight-minute barrier at the Paralympics.
The 26-year-old has been racing in the double sculls since 2015 and always coveted clocking a time that started with a seven.
Rowles and Gregg Stevenson did that in their very first race of the Paris 2024 regatta, winning their heat in a stunning 7:56.92.
“We’ve been promising the fans and our partners that we’d come out and set a world record,” said Rowles, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
“We’ve been saying sub-eight for a long time now and it’s nice to deliver on that today, it’s what we’ve been trying to do in the last couple of years.
“Personally, I’ve been working in the last ten years to do a sub-eight minutes and push this field out to where it has never been before.”
In their previous ten international races together, Rowles and Stevenson had never failed to cross the line first and set three new world best times in the process.
They were actually lying in second place after the first 500 metres of the 2000m Games course at Vaires-sur-Marne, where racing was delayed by an hour due to thunder and lightning.
Buoyed by a home crowd, the French pair of Benjamin Daviet and Perle Bouge made a fast start, but they were soon overhauled by a surge from the British boat.
Rowles and Stevenson opened up a cavernous lead and kept pushing to shatter their previous world best time by more than three seconds and win the race by more than ten seconds.
Rowles has two Paralympic gold medals to her name, but this was in fact Stevenson’s first taste of the Games altogether.
“It’s mega, unbelievable, especially having a crowd here,” said Stevenson.
“The last few days have been phenomenal, and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Rowles has her sights set on even more sporting history on Sunday when she aims to become the first female rower to win three Paralympic titles.
“Our goal was to deliver a world best and then that gold medal,” said Rowles.
“It’s all about going out, winning that race, and continuing the legacy of this boat. I can’t wait to get out there and do it with Greg.”
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