RAF Corporal Victoria Needham will be pulling out all the stops tomorrow (February 24) as she goes through the pain barrier.

The former Canon Lee School pupil, who is based at RAF Shawbury, is used to competing, her usual sport seeing her running for the RAF in the 10k on the road, and 5k on the track.

She counts herself as one of the lucky ones, as an athlete she is still allowed to train and compete within the current government Covid guidelines.

As part of her fitness regime, RAF Physical Training Instructor Victoria, 31, devised an intense cardio session, one element of this is rowing.

To see how good she was at rowing, she signed up to take part in an online indoor rowing event competing in the 2000m race.

She thought she had done quite well but it came as a complete surprise when she heard that her she had qualified as the fastest competitor and selected to represent Team GB.

Victoria, who originates from York, said: “When I opened the email it was a total surprise but I realised it was both good and bad news for me.

“The good news was that I had a fantastic opportunity to represent my country and knowing that my training programme had paid off; the bad news was that I had to row 2000m again and I know just how painful it was going to be when competing at that level,” added Victoria whose parents Melanie and Richard still live in York. She will compete against 11 other qualifiers from other countries.

Her younger brother Jake will join her in the RAF soon and is currently undergoing training as an avionics technician at RAF Cosford.

If you would like to cheer Victoria on, you can see her race online at http://worldrowing.com and on World Rowing’s YouTube channel. She is competing in the Masters Lwt 30-39 Women 2000m final at approximately midday.