British Para-rower Frankie Allen says that the challenge of trying to stay ahead of their rivals is “a privilege”.
Allen is part of the mixed coxed four (PR3x) with the boat unbeaten in the class at major championships since 2011.
“The longer we go unbeaten, that pressure increases,” she told BBC Sport before this week’s European Championships in Szeged, Hungary.
“But I think we deal with it really well.
“We are constantly pushing ourselves on and it is never ‘we have won, we can back off’ – we are constantly giving ourselves targets and making sure we are the quickest we possibly can be.
“Having that pressure is a privilege and a good thing.
“We don’t want to be the ones who lose the unbeaten record but the way we get around it is by focusing on ourselves. So far that has worked and the hard work we do in training has resulted in us keeping that unbeaten streak.”
The 21-year-old, who is also studying physiotherapy at Oxford Brookes University, started her rowing career at school in Pangbourne College alongside non-disabled crew-mates before continuing at university.
Born with Erb’s Palsy, a condition where the nerves that supply movement and feeling to an arm are damaged, Allen did not realise that she was eligible to compete in Para-rowing until shortly before she joined the squad in 2022, winning both European and world titles in her debut season.
While the boat, and the British Para-rowing team as a whole, have enjoyed plenty of success, they also had to deal with cox Erin Kennedy being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 aged 29.
Kennedy underwent treatment, including 15 rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, before she returned to competition in May 2023 and is now a passionate campaigner for early detection and diagnosis.
Her journey has played a part in strengthening the team bonds as they start a season which they hope will see them win a fourth consecutive Paralympic title for Great Britain in Paris.
The boat for Hungary, where their record will be put on the line again, sees one change from the one that won gold at last year’s Europeans with Josh O’Brien coming in for Morgan Fice-Noyes.
Kennedy and Giedre Rakauskaite are the only survivors from the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic win and with Ed Fuller joining in the same year as Allen, the crew have had to be adaptable in dealing with annual changes in personnel.
“It is exciting but also challenging for us,” said Allen. “We are always trying to make the combination go as fast as possible.
“We also try to be as consistent as we can so it is easy for someone new like Josh to come in and be shown the ropes.
“We do things like our race warm-ups regularly in training and make the environment as close to racing as we can so that when it comes to race day at a championship, it is just like another day of training. We have done it all before and we know it.
“If you had asked me three years ago, before I classified, whether I could see myself in this position now, I couldn’t. Each season I have almost surprised myself and making it to Paris would be a dream come true.”
