SINI athlete Karen Cromie takes two Silver Medals

Karen who previously only ever rowed in a TA (trunk and arms) double scull boat competed in time trials in Cork over Easter and made the Irish LTA (leg, trunk and arms) mixed coxed four team.

The newly formed team spent a few days training together in early April under the watchful eye of Head Coach John Armstrong, before travelling to the event in Italy last weekend.

Karen and the rest of her team were delighted to win two silver medals, beating both the German and Italians squads who both medaled at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.

Karen had this to say about her change in team and their outstanding result,

“This is a massive change for me, I am now rowing in a four person sweep boat, so the style of rowing is very different, I only use one blade now as opposed to sculling which uses two, I have been sculling for nearly four years so it is a new skill to learn.

Also, my classification is a trunk and arms, which has meant that I have always rowed on a fixed seat. My new boat is classified as legs, trunks and arms, so it uses the full slide seats, which I am not able to do. This has meant that I have to row half slide and therefore I have to be sharp on timing, catches and not interfere with the boat speed. Really, it is a totally new skill set rowing sweep in a bigger crew boat.

We had our trials at Easter and four days training a week later and then went to Varese last week, we weren’t shocked at how well we did, we knew that we had the boat speed and that we were moving well in the water, but confidence wasn’t high as we hadn’t trained together much. It has given us a huge boost and real belief that we can perform at the World Cup Regatta in Slovenia at the end of May.”

Karen is supported by the Sports Institute Northern Ireland and is funded through the Sport Northern Ireland Athlete Support Programme.