Afghanistan veteran sets sights on gold at World Rowing Championships
A former Royal Engineer has set his sights on winning gold at next week's World Rowing Championships where he hopes to qualify a quota place for next year's Paralympics.
Gregg Stevenson, who lost both his legs in an IED blast whilst serving in Afghanistan, received the call-up to team up with Paralympic gold medalist Lauren Rowles 12 months ago and has had a strong start to his Team GB career.
His international debut for Team GB saw him, alongside Rowles, win World Cup gold in Italy, before following that up with a gold medal at the European Rowing Championships in Slovenia.
Speaking ahead of leaving for the games, he said: "I was more concerned with walking or trying to salvage a career in the military at the time as daft as that sounds, but to be here now, it's exciting.
"When I was offered the opportunity to return, I think it was that that was hook, it's that opportunity really to show myself what I can achieve with a disability."
He added: "It has just been an enjoyable process, honestly from the word go.
"What we did is we sat down and said this is the ambition of the year, the ambition is to get the spot qualified for the Paralympics.
"So we knew right from the start what the ambitions were and I think that suited me, that military mindset of this is what we need to achieve, lets set about it and work hard to go in and accomplish the goal."
Stevenson and Rowles are set to appear at next week's World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, where they will compete in the PR2 mixed double skulls event for Team GB who topped the medal table at last year's World Rowing Championships.
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