FRANCE: Amina Rouba, the only Algerian rower to be heading to the London Olympic Games, faces a difficult task as she prepares to take on the best rowers in the world

Record ID: 574123

  • Title: FRANCE: Amina Rouba, the only Algerian rower to be heading to the London Olympic Games, faces a difficult task as she prepares to take on the best rowers in the world
  • Date: 17th July 2012
  • Summary: NOGENT-SUR-MARNE, FRANCE (JULY 14, 2012) (REUTERS) ROWING CLUB "L'ENCOURAGEMENT" ALGERIAN ROWER AMINA ROUBA AND ALGERIAN NATIONAL ROWING COACH VINCENT TASSERY PREPARING SINGLE SCULL BOAT ROUBA LISTENING TO TASSERY TALKING TASSERY PREPARING BOAT ROUBA VARIOUS OF ROUBA PICKING UP SINGLE SCULL BOAT AND HEADING TOWARDS RIVER ROUBA PREPARING HER BOAT (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALGERIAN NATIONAL TEAM ROWER AMINA ROUBA SAYING: "It's very useful to compete against other athletes who are stronger than me for me to progress. In Algeria I don't have a lot of competition, I'm nearly the only rower so it motivates me to be with other athletes." TASSERY ON MOTOR BOAT WITH ROUBA ROWING DURING TRAINING ROUBA DURING TRAINING (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALGERIAN NATIONAL ROWING TEAM COACH VINCENT TASSERY SAYING: "Amina will take it one race at a time. Her objective is to go through the stages one after the other and deliver the best possible performance. But to make a sporting comparison, it's just like setting up a fight between Mike Tyson (American heavyweight boxing champion) and Brahim Asloum (French lightweight boxer and gold medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics). So the weight categories are completely different. She will race against girls who weigh 80 kilos, as strong as I am if not more so. Amina weighs only 56 kilos, she's a lightweight athlete with good qualities and a high level in her category so now she will have to surpass herself in order to raise her level even more." ROUBA ROWING TASSERY DURING TRAINING VARIOUS OF TRAINING (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALGERIAN NATIONAL TEAM ROWER AMINA ROUBA SAYING: "It hasn't sunk in yet and I'll have to wait until I'm actually there. I don't want to think about it so as not to stress about it and to focus on my training and on the day, on the starting line, when I'm next to Catrina Kirsten, the benchmark in the women's single sculls discipline then yes, I will know that I'm participating in the Olympic Games and racing against the world's best rowers." VARIOUS OF ROUBA AND TASSERY DURING TRAINING SESSION
  • Embargoed: 1st August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7GEQRMQSCLXJ2EVRP1LJYM5S3
  • Story Text: Algeria's rowing hopes for the Olympics rest on one woman's shoulders as 26 year-old Amina Rouba prepares to represent her country at the London games.
    In the outskirts of Paris, the 26 year-old is putting in some last-minute training and preparing to live out her dream.
    By July 28, she will be racing against the best rowers in the world in the women's single sculls event.
    Born and raised in Algeria, Amina Rouba is a young athletic talent, discovered and nurtured by the International Rowing Federation. One of her best results was fifth place in the 2011 Hamburg rowing World Cup.
    Rouba has spent the last few months travelling round Europe to participate in rowing events in order to measure herself against other strong rowers and prepare herself for the London Games.

    "It's very useful to compete against other athletes who are stronger than me for me to progress. In Algeria I don't have a lot of competition, I'm nearly the only rower so it motivates me to be with other athletes," she said.
    She will be competing in the women's single sculls event and will have to go through the qualification stages.
    At only 56 kilos, Amina Rouba will have a tough fight on her hands. Unlike the world championships where rowing is divided in two weight categories -- lightweight and heavyweight -- at the Olympics there is only one and Rouba will be facing heavyweight rowers, more muscular and more powerful on their oars.
    But by her side is the Algerian national rowing coach Vincent Tassery, a former French rower who is trying to up the profile of Algerian rowing.
    For Tassery, Rouba will have to tackle the competition step by step in the hope of making it through to the final stages.

    "Amina will take it one race at a time. Her objective is to go through the stages one after the other and deliver the best possible performance. But to make a sporting comparison, it's just like setting up a fight between Mike Tyson (American heavyweight boxing champion) and Brian Asloum (French lightweight boxer and gold medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics). So the weight categories are completely different. She will race against girls who weigh 80 kilos, as strong as I am if not more so. Amina weighs only 56 kilos, she's a lightweight athlete with good qualities and a high level in her category so now she will have to surpass herself in order to raise her level even more," Tassery told Reuters after training on the river Marne, east of Paris.
    But for Rouba, the idea of rowing at Eton's Dorney Lake west of London, in the most prestigious of all competitions, still seems a dream.

    "It hasn't sunk in yet and I'll have to wait until I'm actually there. I don't want to think about it so as not to stress about it and to focus on my training and on the day, on the starting line, when I'm next to Catrina Kirsten, the benchmark in the women's single sculls discipline then yes I will know that I'm participating in the Olympic Games and racing against the world's best rowers," Rouba said.
    In the 2000-metre race, she will be rowing against five other contestants, a very tough race according to Rouba where she will be looking for a good start, followed by over one kilometre of anaerobic rowing at 80 percent of her capacity and ending with the last 500 metres at full power.
    Algeria has had only one other Franco-Algerian woman rower, Samia Hireche, who went to the Atlanta Games in 1996, with the difference being that she was trained in France and not in Algeria.
    With a limited budget, it is thanks to a private sponsor, Algerian food industry group Cevital, that Rouba has been able to come to France for her last training sessions, relying on family and friends for accommodation and a small rowing club for the training facilities.
    Amina Rouba is set to race on July 28 and she hopes to power all the way through to the final women's single sculls medal events on August 4.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register