Olympic Hopeful Hit by Pellet
Olympic rowing hopeful, Roxana Isla Garcia, faced a swipe with death when, whilst she was training on Manchester ship canal, she was shot in the chest with, what was believed to be, a pellet gun.
26 year old Roxana, who grew up in Mexico, came to England 7 months ago to start a professional rowing career. She joined the Agecroft rowing club which trained on Salford Quays.
Roxanna says she is angry about the incident and if anyone has seen anything she urges them to come forward, She says "I was rowing in my training session and felt something in my chest, my coach took me back and there were an awful lot of people by the water so I asked them if they saw anything and they said they hadn’t but they had heard the bang".
She also stated "If it had been a real bullet I would be dead, I’m waking up in the night thinking about it, I'm angry with the person that has done this, rowing is my life and I want to win the Olympics but my doctor has told me to take time off".
Roxana says she has a lot of bruising and is in a lot of pain, she is also hoping to compete in the 2012 games and this doesn’t seem to be stopping her, yet she may have to put her training on hold for a while.
Roxana moved out of Mexico 4 years ago and has also trained with the Australian rowing team.
If you have seen anything we urge you to call the police.
By Daisy and Anna.