NORTH Yorkshire’s Debbie Flood has turned her hand at judo, athletics, learning Chinese and working as a prison officer alongside her career as a rower – now she’s plotting a spot of alchemy to finally turn Olympic silver into gold.
The Harrogate-born 32-year-old has won silver in the quad at the last two Games, having been a reserve at Sydney 2000, both times alongside Katherine Grainger, and while the Scot has moved to the double in pursuit of Britain’s first ever women’s rowing gold medal, Flood has stayed put.
From the Beijing quartet, only Flood and Fran Houghton remain with Mel Wilson and Beth Rodford joining them in a relatively inexperienced crew. They rowed for the first time together at the last World Cup of the season, winning bronze.
But Flood, who also has three World Championship gold medals to her name, has allayed fears that the foursome have been thrown together at the last minute, claiming the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
“The bronze from Munich was a solid performance for us,” said Flood. “We had only been together for about ten days so the crew had been a bit unsettled and we didn’t know where we were going to place.
“It was important we came away with a medal and to have confidence going forward. We have a lot of things to work on but we have a lot of things that are really good already.
“We have all rowed together at various points in our career but just not in this combination so we are still finding our feet a little bit but it is a good start for us.
“It is all about working together as a crew and getting to know each other a bit more. We do know each other pretty well and we do train together day in, day out and live abroad for about a third of the year so we do know each other pretty well.
“What an opportunity we have. We just need to grab it with both hands and make it memorable. On the day it is fractions that decide it so we will be trying our hardest and we will give it our best shot.”
While Flood and Houghton – the most experienced members of the entire British rowing squad – have spent plenty of time competing at the Olympics, Wilson will be making her debut and while Rodford went to Beijing 2008, she was sweeping rather than sculling. But Flood is more than happy to play the role of elder stateswoman within the crew.
She added: “My Games experience is definitely something that needs to be used. This will be Mel’s first Olympics and it is important that we work as a group and look after each other.
“Beth was rowing in the last Olympics but sculling in this one. I think we all will have the nerves but I think as long as we row together, that will get the best out of us.”
• Lloyds TSB, proud supporter of Team GB and proud partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Get closer to the Games at lloydstsb.com/london2012
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