Oxford women prepare for Boat Race
Oxford carry their boat out ready for the Wallingford Head last term
While many eyes turn to the popular men’s Boat Race on 2nd April this year, the preceding day will be of greater concern to Oxford University Women’s Boat Club (OUWBC) when they race in the Henley Boat Races with Osiris (the second boat) and the Blue Boat. This is, of course, not just any race: it requires months of mental and physical preparation. It is the common thread through all of OUWBC’s racing and it motivates the athletes even in the preceding summer.
OUWBC ended last summer in style by receiving a flush of medals at the Home Countries match and the EUSA events: a bronze for Hilary Powell, representing England in her single; a gold for Alice Freeman and Emily Ross as an Oxford pair; and, most satisfyingly, a gold for the Oxford women in the eight. Even then it was clear that Dark Blue domination and consistent victory were to be the themes in the 2005-6 season.
The autumn schedule was peppered with numerous opportunities for the athletes to test themselves against the best competition the UK had to offer. All of this, of course, was mere preparation for the true battle against Cambridge on April Fools’ Day. President Alex Cairns remarked that the squad’s autumn performance was “the best in recent years.
?? Long, processional races, called ‘head races’, on the Tideway proved to be the staple of OUWBC autumn fixtures, as the club competed in three events, winning pennants in all. The first race, Pairs Head, came only a few weeks after training had started in earnest. The squad sent three pairs to the event, earning the pennant and second place in one division.
In the next Tideway race, Fuller’s Head of the River fours, the whole squad raced, charging up the four-and-a-quarter mile course from Mortlake to Putney. OUWBC exceeded its performance at Pairs Head, garnering two more pennants. In fact, OUWBC’s quickest boat performed the best out of the domestic women’s coxed four.
Intimidating results only continued at the last 2005 Tideway event, Vesta’s Sculler’s Head, where Powell (the third fastest female overall) and Amelia van Manen both won their respective divisions. The final event on the Tideway, women’s eights Head of the River race, will take place only a few weeks before the Boat Race. Both Osiris and the Blue Boat will start in the top 20, racing Cambridge for the first time this season.
The two Oxford crews are also racing in aid of Breast Cancer Haven, showing their support both by wearing pink lycra and aiming initially to raise four hundred pounds for the organization. Already, the count stands close to five hundred. In addition to strong Tideway performances, the squad has sent five athletes to the Great Britain national team trials • an unprecedented achievement in itself. National team trials consist of three grueling five-kilometer races in windy Boston, Lincolnshire.
Three athletes were then invited to national team training camps: Powell attended the senior camp in Spain, while Cairns and Naomi Pollock traveled to Nantes, France, to participate in an under- 23 development camp. OUWBC have sent strong messages to their Light Blue adversaries at every event entered this year. At the British Indoor Rowing Championships, Powell and Pollock provided a strong one-two combination, while four others earned a place in the top 20.
At their last event in 2005, Wallingford Head, the squad eights won three divisions by finishing first, second and fourth overall. The squad’s most recent success has come on the Henley stretch itself at Henley Fours and Eights Head. Every boat that was entered by OUWBC won its division. The eight, mainly composed of Osiris athletes, was the fastest women’s eight by nine seconds and also beat over twenty men’s eights, including several Oxford colleges.
In the early, hopeful period of October and even during the dark, cold January days felt at their training camp in Hazewinkel, Belgium, imagining themselves on the start line, facing off against their Cambridge counterparts seemed far-off and surreal. Now, it is a different story. The crews have been selected and announced. The racing shells have been brought out.
And the new generosity and support of Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company allow all to look forward to April 1 with confident excitement. The crews have solidified into formidable racing machines, with each athlete boasting numerous achievements. The success over the past year will give all involved the confidence that, when the actual racing begins, training and experience will carry both boats to victory.
2nd Mar 2006