A member of Marlow Rowing Club says the success of Helen Glover and other alumni members at the Paris Olympics is ‘hugely inspiring’ for local schoolchildren and would-be rowers of all ages.

Team GB’s Helen Glover trained at Marlow Rowing Club after picking up the sport in her twenties and still dons the club’s colours when competing in composite crew events.

The 38-year-old, who is married to naturalist Steve Backshall and lives upstream from Marlow on the Thames, just missed out on a third Olympic gold medal today (August 1) after coming second to the Netherlands in the quadruple sculls race in Paris.

A runner-up silver is nothing to be sniffed at, however, and Glover still has the full support of her home club behind her, with member John Kirtland describing the mum-of-three as an “inspiration for so many reasons”.

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She’s also not the only former member Marlow Rowing Club has in the game – Heidi Long and Sholto Carnegie, who will compete in the women's and men’s eights on Saturday, August 3, joined when they were just 12-years-old and spent their formative years learning the sport on the town’s stretch of the River Thames.

Although they didn’t appear on John’s radar until their names began gaining prominence as their growing skills saw them join Henley Regatta crews, he said, on behalf of the club as a whole, he is “so proud” of their progress – and acknowledges the significance of Marlow’s contribution to Team GB over the years, most notably of course with the man commonly recognised as one of Britain’s greatest sporting heroes, Sir Steve Redgrave.

John, who is 63 and has rowed at the club for around 25 years, said: “It’s so great for the junior rowers joining the club when they’re young, or coming through Sir William Borlase or Great Marlow School, to see figures like Steve Redgrave and Helen Glover having the success they have.

“I’ll never be in the Olympics, but it inspires me too! We have courses teaching adults to row and they’ve been growing in popularity as well as our general membership. I think when people hear about how well people who’ve trained here are doing, it changes their perception from ‘this is like going to the gym’ and opens up a world of possibilities.”

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He's also keen to promote the benefits of the sport beyond its potential for high-flying international renown.

“You go on a boat, and you cannot afford to be distracted in the whole 45 minutes you’re out there, otherwise you’ll end up capsizing. A lot of people have never had to focus on just one thing for that long before, so many of us get distracted so easily.

“I think it imparts so many skills, like discipline and time management. And you can watch on and cheer for your club members. We’re so happy to have someone in each of the eight races on Saturday – they’re really the prestige events.

“We’ll be watching! I think they’ve both got a good chance but you’ve got to remember that it’s the Olympics, so anything can happen.”