Warwick alumnus wins Paralympic gold medal

Oliver James, a University of Warwick alumnus, won a Paralympic gold at the Rio Games in the mixed coxed four rowing event on Monday.

James graduated from Warwick in 2012 with a degree in Philosophy, having joined the rowing club in his first year, wherein he started to cox.

After graduating he joined the prestigious Leander rowing club in Berkshire, home to numerous Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists past and present. James soon became part of the Great British team, making his GB rowing debut in 2013.

Him and his teammates – Pamela Relph, Grace Clough, Daniel Brown and James Fox – were the favourites to win the event, and managed to defend the gold won in the 2012 London Paralympics.

Prior to the final there were fears that Team USA would provide strong opposition, having lost out to the British by just 0.26 seconds in the 2015 World Championships.

But Team GB took the lead and never looked back, leaving the Americans to take the silver medal ahead of Canada.

A winning time of 3.17.17 was 1.26 seconds short of the Paralympic record, set by Germany four years ago, and 3.41 seconds shy of the world record set by James and his crew last year.

Oliver James has coxed the GB Rowing Team’s LTA mixed coxed four to Paralympics gold and three successive World Championship titles. A convincing victory on the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas ensured that Britain successfully defended the Paralympic title won four years earlier at London 2012.

British Rowing

Team GB have been the reigning World and Paralympic champions in this event since 2011, with James having coxed the mixed four to three World Championship titles in a row.

The gold medal won by James and his team completed a highly successful day for Team GB’s rowers on Monday, with four medals claimed within an hour of each other.

Prior to the mixed coxed four final, Rachel Morris had finished first to take the arms-shoulders single sculls gold final. This was followed by victory for Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley in the trunk-and-arms mixed double sculls.

Tom Aggar added a bronze in the men’s single sculls, as Team GB added to its already bulging collection of silverware.

This total currently stands at 80 medals in all, with the team targeting an overall Paralympics haul of 121 medals.

On their website, British Rowing commented: “Oliver James has coxed the GB Rowing Team’s LTA mixed coxed four to Paralympics gold and three successive World Championship titles.

“A convincing victory on the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas ensured that Britain successfully defended the Paralympic title won four years earlier at London 2012.”