Naomi Riches

Naomi Joy Riches[1] MBE, DL (born on 15 June 1983) is a British adaptive rower who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics and a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

Naomi Riches
Personal information
Full nameNaomi Joy Riches
NationalityBritish
Born (1983-06-15) 15 June 1983
Sport
Country United Kingdom
SportAdaptive rowing
Medal record
Pararowing
Representing  Great Britain
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place2012 LondonLTA coxed four
Bronze medal – third place2008 BeijingLTA coxed four
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2004 BanyolesLTA coxed four
Gold medal – first place2005 KaizuLTA coxed four
Gold medal – first place2006 DorneyLTA coxed four
Gold medal – first place2009 PoznańLTA coxed four
Gold medal – first place2011 BledLTA coxed four
Gold medal – first place2013 ChungjuLTA coxed four
Silver medal – second place2007 OberschleißheimLTA coxed four

Personal life

Riches was born on 15 June 1983 in Hammersmith, London, England.[2] She attended Cannon Lane school as a child. She is registered blind and is classified for competition in the B3 category.[3][4] She competed for Harrow in the London Youth Games as a disability swimmer.[5] At the age of 12 she was a National Disabled Swimming champion.[2]

She attended the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) College in Worcester.[2] She graduated from Buckinghamshire New University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in metalwork and jewellery design.[2][6]

Riches currently works for a psychometric assessment provider as a sport and education consultant.[7]

Rowing

Riches took up rowing whilst at the RNIB College in Worcester.[2] She competes in the legs, trunks and arms adaptive mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+) event. She won gold medals in the event at the 2004, 2005 and 2006 World Rowing Championships and won silver in 2007.[8]

She was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Paralympics held in Beijing, China, as rowing made its debut at the Games. Competing with Alastair McKean, Vicki Hansford, and James Morgan, along with cox Alan Sherman she won a bronze medal in the mixed coxed four.[3][9]

Riches along with her British compatriot, David Smith

Riches won a further world title in 2009, alongside Hansford, David Smith, James Roe and cox Rhiannon Jones.[10] At the 2010 World Championships she won a silver medal competing with Smith, Roe, Ryan Chamberlain and Jones.[11] He is visually impaired.[2]

In 2011, she competed at the World Rowing Championships held at Lake Bled, Bled, Slovenia. She won the gold medal in the LTAMix4+ event alongside crewmates Pam Relph, David Smith, James Roe and Lily van den Broecke, the cox.[2][12] They completed the one kilometre course in a time of three minutes, 27.10 seconds, finishing nearly five seconds ahead of the second placed Canadian boat. The result qualified a boat for Great Britain into the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.[13] The crew repeated their gold medal result at the Munich World Cup event in 2012.[2]

Riches was selected along with Relph, Smith, Roe and van den Broeke, to represent Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the mixed coxed four event.[14] The event took place between 31 August and 2 September at Eton Dorney,[15] and the GB crew won the gold medal.

She was inducted into the London Youth Games Hall of Fame in 2012.

Riches was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to rowing.[16][17]

In 2016, she became the first woman to row the length of the River Thames.[18] She completed this in less than 48 hours, as she had hoped (six seconds less exactly).[18]

See also

References
  1. GRO reference: June 1983, Vol. 12, Page 1989
  2. "Naomi Riches". British Paralympic Association. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  3. "Naomi's bronze disappointment". Harrow Observer. 18 September 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  4. "Riches inspired by Olympic crews". BBC Sport. 29 August 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  5. "Hall of Fame retrieved 19 February 2013". Archived from the original on 7 March 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  6. "Students row their way into the London 2012 Paralympic Games". London Higher. 28 June 2012. Archived from the original on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  7. "Naomi Riches MBE – Paralympic rowing champion". Thomas International. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  8. "In the Spotlight: Naomi Riches". UK Sport. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  9. "Britons in historic rowing double". BBC Sport. 11 September 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  10. Gough, Martin (29 August 2009). "Britain win two golds at Worlds". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  11. "James Roe". British Paralympic Association. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  12. "World Rowing: GB mixed coxed four win adaptive gold". BBC Sport. 4 September 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  13. "Wham, bam thank you Pam as rower gets gold to set up London 2012 dream". The Bucks Herald. 8 September 2011. Archived from the original on 19 September 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  14. "2012 Paralympics: GB rowing's mixed coxed four – who's who?". BBC Sport. 25 August 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  15. "Mixed Coxed Four – LTAMix4+". The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  16. "No. 60367". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2012. p. 25.
  17. Cabinet Office
  18. "Paralympian first woman to row the Thames". Itv.com. 23 September 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
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