Surrey rower wins at the World Championships
Thursday 3 September 2009
It was great news for University of Surrey Sports Development Officer, Vicki Hansford, at the weekend when her mixed adaptive coxed four crew won their class at the World Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland.
The mixed adaptive coxed four have had a good season with a World Cup win earlier this year in Munich. Since taking bronze at the Beijing Paralympics last year, the crew has two newcomer rowers - James Roe and Dave Smith - who contested Saturday’s final with Naomi Riches at stroke, Vicki Hansford at bow and Rhiannon Jones as the new cox.
After some close heats in Poznan, the British team knew it was going to have a tough final on its hands on Saturday (29/8). The Italians, Germans and Australians had also qualified and were determined to take the title, leaving the Brits in little doubt as to the level of performance they were going to have to put in if they were to take the number one spot.
The British quartet were just half a length ahead of Italy, a fast qualifier from the heats, at the halfway mark. In what was an extremely tight race the Germans challenged strongly, however, in a display of power the British combination powered onwards to win in 3:25.33, a World record.
Vicki Hansford said: "We were the fastest boat by quite a way in the heats and today (29/8) we were totally confident in our race plan. We knew we were in control and doing what we had to do".
The win for Vicki’s team came almost three years to the day ahead of the London 2012 Paralympic Games and will give the team yet another boost as they continue their preparations.
The British team will be flying home on Wednesday (2/9) with Vicki returning to work at the University on Thursday. As well as being a Sports Development Officer at the University of Surrey, Vicki Hansford is an ambassador for the new Surrey Sports Park, a multi-million pound development which is owned by the University. When it opens in early 2010, the Surrey Sports Park will be one of the premier training facilities ahead of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Media Enquiries
Peter La, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44 (0)1483 689191, or Email mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk