Great Britian's Tom Aggar won the men's single sculls ASM1x event at the 2013 World Rowing Cup, as Russia's Aleksey Chuvashev finished second and fellow Brit Andrew Houghton finished third.
© • Naomi Baker
Tom Aggar poses in front of the London 2012 Olympic Park.
© • Getty Images
After winning gold at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, Tom Aggar’s five-year undefeated streak in international races ended when he finished fourth at London 2012 on home water at Eton Dorney.
But the 29-year-old four-time defending world champion who races in the ASM1x boat class regained his hometown glory in 2013 when he finished first at the World Rowing Cup at Eton Dorney on 22 June.
The former rugby player at Warwick University clocked a time of 5:18.70 in the men’s single sculls at this summer’s World Cup.
In 2010, Aggar was not only named the World Adaptive Crew of the Year by FISA, he was also named the International Rowing Federation’s first Adaptive Rower of the Year.
Aggar’s legs were paralysed in 2005 after he accidentally fell eight feet onto a concrete path and injured his spinal cord. He took up adaptive rowing in 2006 to help recover from his injuries and just a year later won a gold in the men’s single sculls at the World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany.
He set a world record in that race by recording a time of 5:13.13 to defeat two-time world champion from Australia, Dominic Monypenny.
Aggar set world records again in 2009 (4:51.8) and 2010 (4:49.80) before the second mark was bested by China’s Cheng Huang (4:45.02) in the second heat at London 2012.
In the finals at the Paralympics, Aggar finished behind Huang, Australia’s Erik Horrie and Russia’s Aleksey Chuvashev with a time of 4:58.01.
Using that loss to fuel his comeback, Aggar officially put a disappointing 2012 season in his wake by winning the World Cup in 2013.
Now, regrouped and with a newborn baby, he looks to try and regain his world record once again and to a promising performance at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
