Coxed four land emotional gold while Rowles makes history

ParalympicsGB’s mixed coxed four won gold to make it 14 years unbeaten and extend the longest winning streak in British sport.

Cox Erin Kennedy, who has beaten breast cancer, guided Ed Fuller, Giedre Rakauskaite, Josh O’Brien and Frankie Allen to a dominant victory.

It was one of three golds and four medals on a magical morning for GB’s rowers and means the four have won 25 titles in a row since 2010.

“Every single year we have been pushing ourselves on and we’ve taken trust from team-mates before us,” said Rakauskaite, whose success came on the 18th anniversary of the car accident which left her disabled.

“There has always been an overlap of at least one or two team-mates from previous Games and we just drew on everything we could from them, trying to make them proud as well as our friends and family.

“The date carries huge significance for me and it’s now a golden anniversary.

“The Paralympics have been a second chance. I always wanted to be an athlete but when I was a kid, I thought that chance was taken away from me.

“Finding out later when I was in my 20s that I can still pursue my dream as a Paralympian, it was something I just latched on to and clearly didn’t give up.”

After discovering a lump in her breast while on training camp in 2022, Kennedy was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 29.

She continued competing during chemotherapy and following a double mastectomy, won the 2023 European Championships exactly a year to the day after her diagnosis.

Kennedy added: “This is the end of a narrative chapter in my life that I didn’t really want to start.

“It has been a bit of a mental three years and 680 days since I was diagnosed, which can be a lot or not a lot, depending on how you look at it.

“Rowing has been the constant for me when things were changing and always provided the goal.

Elsewhere on a glittering morning, Lauren Rowles became the first rower ever to win three Paralympic titles, claiming a thrilling mixed double sculls victory alongside Gregg Stevenson.

Rowles and Stevenson were put under immense pressure by China but summoned a sprint finish, passing their rivals in the last ten strokes to prevail by a couple of seconds.

“What feels better than making history, right?” said Rowles, who became a mum in March.

“The journey with Gregg has been incredible and that has been the best part about it. I said to him, whatever the result is, when we cross that finish line, I can say I’ve had the best time in the world.”

This was a debut gold for Stevenson, a former Commando who lost both of his legs when he stepped on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2009.

“It’s the commitment, I’ve struggled with that previously, to turn up and work hard,” he said. “I just want to be a role model for my kids and hang about with Lauren and do what she does, which is grind and work and just achieve.”

If those two crews were expected to triumph, few had pinned a gold medal around Benjamin Pritchard’s neck.

The Welsh single sculler, who finished fifth in Tokyo, produced a stunning display as he overhauled Italian Giacomo Perini to crush the field by 11 seconds.

“It has been a three-year process in which we’ve broken down the 2000m race course,” Pritchard said.

“For everything to pay off like that and to win in style is pretty special.”

There was also silver for Sam Murray and Annie Caddick in the other mixed double sculls class.

Murray, who stepped away from the squad in 2017 before returning five years later, said: “The Paralympics wasn’t even in on my horizon, to be honest. I left rowing, was working in London as a consultant and was quite content with where I got to.

“Only at the start of 2023 did we decide we could make a crack at this. It’s quite surreal to be here.”