BY SHAKILA BARABHUIYA PARALYMPIC rower Sam Scowen has set her sights on a gold medal at next year's Paralympics just two years after taking up the sport.

Scowen, 24, was born with one leg shorter than the other and does not have a fully functioning knee, ankle or hip joint on her right hand side.

She has lived in Wokingham all her life and races in the Trunk and Arms Mixed Double Scull event alongside Nick Beighton, who has a double knee amputation, and only started rowing in 2009.

They won bronze at the Munich World Cup this year and she won gold in Munich with a different partner in 2009.

The former Ryeish Green pupil had the distinguished honour of becoming the first boat to win GB a place in the 2012 Games when she qualified for the final of the mixed adaptive double on August 30.

Speaking to the News from her Caversham base, Scowen said: "We knew as soon as we crossed the line in the top two that our boat was in the Games but we didn't realise we would be the first boat to qualify.

"We were both absolutely thrilled and honoured.

"It's something I'll always remember and no-one will ever be able to take that away from me. It's something to tell the kids when I'm older." However, Scowen, who has a degree in Art and 3D design from Thames Valley University, knows the hard work has only just begun.

She said: "The pressure's really going to be on. Just because the double has qualified, it doesn't mean they'll send it.

"We have to be up there and performing in the medal-winning times before they'll even consider sending us." Scowen, who is a member of Dorney Boat Club and learnt to row at the Olympic venue, declared: "We're more than confident that gold is achievable and we're going to come back with it.

"There's no point going if you don't think you can come back with gold." It would be a remarkable feat for the pair, who have been together less than a year and are still newcomers compared to the experienced Australian and Chinese crews.

But that also has its advantages, as Scowen explains.

"Because we're so new, our times are improving by quite a way.

"In Bled we were just under 10 seconds off them so in six months we can easily knock that off." She added: "I'd be gutted if I lost my spot before the Games.

"That's what keeps me training even when it's freezing.

"We all want that seat in the boat so we'll do anything that we have to, to get there." With just over 200 days till the Paralympics next August, the excitement and trepidation is already mounting for Scowen.

"It's going to be brilliant but it's going to be scary," she remarked.

"I get this horrible churning feeling in my stomach and then all of a sudden I'm overly excited and I almost feel like I need to go on an ergo then and there just to get it out of my system." Everyone who was there at the start of her career and all her family and friends will be there to cheer her on, on her home stretch of water.

"I can't wait, it's going to be amazing," she said.