A Jehovah's Witness, Britain's first Muslim rower, and a champion from 1992

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A Jehovah's Witness, Britain's first Muslim rower, and a champion from 1992... the men going for rowing glory at London Olympics

By Mike Dickson
Last updated at 11:14 AM on 3rd March 2011


As rioters laid siege to The Treasury in the pre-Christmas protests against tuition fees one of Great Britain’s aspiring gold medallists for 2012 had the perfect view.

Phelan Hill, cox of the GB rowing eight, was actually inside the building and at a window watching the action as he finished his day working as a high-ranked adviser to the government.

'When they got in we were told to evacuate and I slipped out of one of the side doors. At the time I wasn’t aware of the scale of it and only when I got home and watched it on television did it look a bit more scary,' says Hill.
Brit of all right: Dan Ritchie, Phelan Hill and Mohamed Sbihi
Brit of all right: Dan Ritchie, Phelan Hill and Mohamed Sbihi
The 29 year-old is a throwback to the days when Olympians often had ‘proper’ jobs, and his is so proper that spends much of his time dealing with government ministers and drawing up legislation for the insurance industry.

Somehow he also manages to train with an elite crew who, apart from being among the favourites for gold in 2012, may amount to one of the most eclectic collection of athletes due to compete at the Games.

Aiming for a place in the boat, for example, are Britain’s first prominent Muslim rower, a 38 year-old who won at the Barcelona 1992 Games and a Stroke who is a Jehovah’s Witness and former junior swimming champion.
'There’s a huge diversity among us but at the same time a real respect. Actually there is a noticeable togetherness among the group and everyone enjoys each other’s company,' says Hill, who took a First in Law and believes his experience working in the Treasury is a major asset in his other life.

'With what I do there you are always trying to bring together people with different views on fairly complex matters. I used to speak to Alastair Darling all the time but I don’t see George Osborne quite as much.'
The Treasury have been supportive of the conflicting demands on his time, and this year he will need take a break from his job if selected to carry on steering a boat which has a real chance of glory.

At November’s World Championships in New Zealand the GB eight lost by an agonising 0.6 seconds to Germany, and a measure of their improvement is that the previous year they were more than eight seconds off the winners.
High hopes for glory: Britain's cox Phelan Hill
High hopes for glory: Britain's cox Phelan Hill
Most of the attention on the boat has centred on veteran Greg Searle’s hopes of winning a second gold 20 years after his first, but he is far from being the only remarkable story in the group.
Another is the mountainous figure of 22 year-old Mohamed ‘Moe’ Sbihi, whose background is highly unusual in a traditionally more ‘waspy’ sport. The son of a Moroccan barber who settled in Surbiton and married his English mother, rowing found him rather than the other way round.

When he was 15 the sport’s talent spotters arrived at his school as part of the ‘Start’ programme trying to discover potential stars. A keen footballer and tennis player who had never rowed, he was found to have remarkable natural aerobic capacity and, supported by the National Lottery and Siemens, he was quickly fast-tracked when he showed aptitude on top of that.

'The funny thing is that I tried to sneak out of doing the trials that day because I wanted to go off and play football, but the PE teacher spotted me at the door and called me back,' he says.
'If he hadn’t done then none of this would have happened.'

As for all practising Muslims taking part, Sbehi will be confronted with the issue in 2012 of how to manage the fact that the Games fall during the annual fasting month of Ramadan. It is something he has discussed with Mo Farah, the country’s outstanding distance runner, and he has sought advice from his faith community.

Can he really do it again? 1992 Olympic champion Greg Searle
Can he really do it again? 1992 Olympic champion Greg Searle
'Personally I am going to postpone my fasting, and do it after the Games. What I do is between me and Allah,' says Sbehi.
'I did the same thing last year because Ramadan coincided with our high altitude training. It is a complication but we look upon it as a blessed situation.'

Religious faith is also at life’s centre for Dan Ritchie, a Jehovah’s Witness, whose progress since switching from swimming five years ago has been so rapid that he is lined up for the key Stroke position.
'Moe and I have quite a few long discussions about our beliefs, but we are very good friends,' emphasises Ritchie.
'We used to row in a pair together and people joked that we would win because we had two Gods on our side.'
Ritchie was an outstanding distance swimmer who was nationally ranked third in the 1500 metre event as a 16 year-old before becoming disillusioned with it and quitting, taking up rowing seriously a year later.

Like Sbihi he feels that his religious adherence is an asset in a sport that requires enormous self-discipline. The complication in his case might be that his faith precludes him from saluting the national anthem, although he stresses that he would still stand for it out of respect.

The early part of this year has been spent training in Pairs and Singles, with Hill keeping in practice at his club and continuing with his outside job.

Both Sbihi and Ritchie performed strongly two weeks ago in the winter Assessment trials, which were otherwise most notable for Anna Watkins claiming an eyecatching victory in the single sculls over five-times world champion Katherine Grainger, who had become almost invincible on her own water.

The key date remains the final trials on April 16 and 17 at Eton Dorney, after which head coach Jurgen Grobler will make the hard decisions about which rowers from this remarkably diverse group make it into which boats for the build-up to the Olympics. It is only from there that they can really start to dream.

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