FARNHAM’S Paralympian Rachel Morris said “she felt like a rower for the first time” after taking gold and setting a new world best time in the World Cup in Poznan, Poland last Saturday.

In her last event before the Rio Paralympics Rachel, who is a member of the GB Para Rowing squad, joined other para-rowers for their only appearance of the World Cup series in 2016 for a pre-Rio racing test.

Rachel rows in the arms-shoulders single scull category (ASW1x) having transferred in late 2013 from her previous sport of hand cycling in which she achieved gold in Beijing in 2008 and bronze in London in 2012.

In 2015 she won silver in the rowing World Championships in Aiguebelette and qualified her boat for Rio 2016.

Rachel’s first heat in The World Rowing Cup III, held on Lake Malta in west-central Poland, was on the evening of Thursday, June 16, when the water of Lake Malta was calm.

She spent much of her time tracking the 2014 World Champion Brigit Skarstein of Norway and came home in second place by two-thirds of a length and so qualified for a place in the A-finals. Her time was the second fastest of the two heats in a time of 5:45.88 for the one kilometre course.

In the first final of the regatta on the morning of Saturday, June 18, Rachel found herself up against stiff competition which included the current World Champion, Moran Samuel of Israel and Skarstein again.

Skarstein was the first to find the lead closely followed by Rachel and Samuel, who went through the middle of the race side-by-side which helped move the chasing boats closer to Skarstein.

Samuel dropped her stroke rate and began to slip back while Rachel took on Skarstein and not only caught up to her but was matching her stroke for stroke.

Morris and Skarstein both raced hard to the line but Rachel timed her finish perfectly to overhaul Skarstein with 20 metres to go and take the gold. Skarstein crossed in second with Samuel managing to hold on to third.

In winning Rachel set a new world best time of 5:09.28 beating the previous record by more than six seconds.

After the race Rachel said: “Today I felt like a rower for the first time. It’s about the training and the technique and everything just came together today. I love being out on the water, it’s a fantastic feeling.”

GB performance director Sir David Tanner described the gold won by Rachel over the reigning World Champion, as “outstanding”.

At the end of the three World Cup series for 2016, New Zealand had the overall highest number of World Rowing Cup points, with 119. Great Britain was second and the Netherlands finished third. 

The GB Paralympic Rowing Team for Rio is expected to be announced on June 30.