Paralympian rower and member of the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland based at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Karen Cromie, begins her long road to the 2012 Paralympics Games in London tomorrow with the first World Cup of the season in Bled, Slovenia.
The 30 year-old from Co. Fermanagh, fifth in the Beijing final two years ago when representing Great Britain, is now a member of the growing Irish adaptive squad.
“Yes, the Irish Adaptive Team is growing all the time; I truly believe it is a very exciting time for Adaptive Rowers within Ireland. We have the potential to be the first Irish Adaptive athletes to take part in the Paralympics in London 2012. This is a fantastic opportunity for an athlete to compete in front of a home crowd and more importantly all those friends and family members who have supported them, through all ups and downs of competing at the highest level,” she explained.
The early signs have been encouraging with two silver medals won last month at the International Adaptive Regatta in the Italian city of Varese although Karen has had to use the services provided at SINI to make sure she is able to compete this weekend.
She adds, “I have been nursing a minor injury since I returned from Italy, however, with the fantastic support from SINI I am back to full fitness. My physiotherapist Dave Minion has been working every day with me in order to have a speedy recovery and Mark Killgallon, my strength and conditioning coach has been keeping me busy in the gym to increase my strength, which means all their hard work has paid off and I am now able to compete at the World Cup regatta in Bled. It is never an ideal situation to prepare for competition with an injury, but I am very lucky to have the support from everyone at SINI to get me over that hurdle as quickly as possible.”
Training is never an easy venture with two of her crewmates working and living in London. “This means when we do manage to get together we have to maximise the time we spend in the boat as a crew. It was a pretty intense training camp at the weekend; however, I am confident it will pay off in Bled. We are racing many of the same crews we had in Italy. I feel we have matured as a crew and now have a greater understanding of what we need to do as a crew to make our boat go as fast as possible, we also have the most amazing and extremely experienced coxswain Laura Purdy, who will keep us fighting throughout the whole race to make sure we do everything we can to cross the finish line in first position.”
It’s a longer than usual season for rowing with the World Championships in New Zealand not until the start of November but Karen is confident they can move forward in 2010 with the long term view, success in London in 2012.
By Nigel Ringland
