Aggar suffers shock Paralympic defeat (From Times Series)

Former Paralympic champion Tom Aggar fails to win single sculls medal

1:32pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 in Sport By Anthony Matthews, Group Sports Editor

Tom Aggar was "absolutely devastated" after losing his Paralympic single sculls crown and finishing out of the medals in a stunning upset at Eton Dorney this morning.

The 28-year-old, who attended Queen Elizabeth's School in Barnet, had gone into the final as a red-hot favourite after never tasting defeat before in the ASM1x (Arms and Shoulders) category.

Aggar may be a four-time World Champion but there has been a significant improvement in the event in the past year and after breaking his own world record in the heats, the Maidenhead-based rower saw eventual gold medallist Cheng Huang and Aleksey Chuvashev go quicker.

Huang led throughout the final and having spent much of the race trying to catch the Chinese competitor, Aggar faded late on and finished in fourth.

Quick-finishing Australian Erik Hollie claimed silver, with Russian Chuvashev claiming the fina, podium place.

"I'm absolutely devastated," Aggar told BBC Radio 5 Live afterwards. "The standard's really improved year on year and I've managed to stay ahead of that curve.

"I've been putting in PBs all year, but when I dug deep there was nothing there. You get new people coming in from other sports, which is great, and earlier in the year I've beaten all these guys."