Caius rower helps make women’s sporting history

  • 31 March 2015

The final crews have been selected, the weigh-in is over and the countdown has begun to the 2015 BNY Mellon Boat Races on April 11. This is an historic year: for the first time, the Newton Women’s Boat Race will take place on the Tideway, over the same 6.8km course and on the same day as the men’s event.

As the last preparations are made for the big day, Caius student Melissa Wilson - rowing in her third boat race – takes time out from training to tell us about getting up at 5.15am, being drenched by Thames waves and avoiding all school sports.



 

Photograph: BRCL (Boat Race Company Limited)

You’re in the Cambridge women’s boat for the third consecutive time. When did you take up rowing?



I didn’t row before university: I learned at Caius. It wasn’t unusual for me to write sick notes to avoid sport at school, and though I’d done a bit of swimming I found it difficult to cope with having a much faster younger brother! Then I arrived at college in 2011 and went along to the boathouse for a barbecue, mainly looking for a good way of spending time outdoors. There were a lot of very friendly people, so I spent my first year getting to grips with doing some physical activity! The college has a really good system where you are a novice for a term and are taught by other students. I spent that term just paddling up and down in awe of the college first boat.



How did you move on to rowing for the university?



At the end of the first term, the college held a training camp where one of the alumni men came and told us in very clear terms that this was “not ****ing Wind in the Willows” and we needed to push on. The women’s boat had been struggling in the Bump tables, but the pep-talk resulted in me calling my mum and saying I really didn’t think rowing was for me! I’m glad we got over that initial hurdle though, and after camp I rowed in the first boat. I received some positive results, and decided to trial for the university over the summer.



You raced in the women’s Boat Race in 2013 and 2014 – did the experience convince you to stick with rowing?



We rowed at Eton Dorney in 2013 because conditions were supposedly dangerous at Henley, and on the usual women’s course at Henley in 2014 – losing both times to Oxford. Last year was probably the less positive experience, but Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club also supported me through the GB trials that year and I ended up rowing in the GB Under 23s eight last summer.  That was an amazingly rewarding and motivating time for me and really got me fired up for this year.

 

 

 

 

Photograph: Christopher Down

How does it feel to be making sporting history this year by rowing the women’s boat race on the Tideway?



Right from when I began trialling this has been on the horizon, and it was raised before that in the eighties and afterwards: people have been saying for a long time this should be the next step. It’s a huge privilege – it just feels amazing that this is happening now. I can remember watching the Boat Race aged about 14 with my dad and my brother and asking ‘Is there a women’s race?’ They weren’t exactly laughing but they said no; it seems bizarre that was less than ten years ago. It could be overwhelming, but in terms of our crew most of the things we focus on are entirely unchanged; it’s a race we seek to win by going through the same processes and getting them right.



How important has sponsorship been for the women’s event?



Sponsorship has been the primary shift. It would have been logistically impossible for us to achieve this move if Newton hadn’t stepped up: I don’t think the significance can be over-estimated. That was a really crucial development in terms of the wider sporting implications – other firms need to do likewise.

Receiving equal funding to the men means that we can run a fully professional programme with the necessary boats, training camps, coaching and support staff. However, a challenge we still face is how to generate funding to support the club in a longer-term sense. CUWBC draws a huge amount from our alumni, and that support from past members has made a particular impression in the lead up to this pivotal race. But there is still quite a gap between the amount our alumni are able to donate and those from the men’s side. Both clubs are working together at the moment to build a shared boathouse in Ely; meeting the costs of that has shown that there’s a colossal amount of support from both clubs’ alumni, but we still have a way to go before we reach our fundraising target.

 

 

 

 

Photograph: Sarah Harbour

Tell us about your training. Have you made special preparations for rowing on the Tideway rather than at Henley?



Right through the three years we have tended to train twelve times a week over the seven months’ preparation – about 35 hours a week in total on the water and in the gym, getting up at 5.15am and going to bed at 10pm. The amount of training hasn’t really needed to increase because you are always just trying to improve your aerobic fitness and strength. But we’ve had a lot of new psychological input this year – we’ve had fantastic support from a GB Olympic Association psychologist helping us look at how we frame the race so we don’t feel we’re in a threat environment.

It’s also been necessary to have a lot more focus on logistics and the tactical elements involved: unlike Henley, the race is not a straight course.

We have had to go down to London about once a fortnight and we’ve spent a lot of time on the Tideway, whereas you would only go down to Henley for the week of your race. The Tideway is not only tidal but also has such huge corners: you will always need to be pointing into an unfavourable wind at some point. You need to be comfortable with being hit by waves that are much higher than the outside of your boat.



How do you find rowing on that rougher water?



I find it pretty invigorating. It really snaps you into action. You are totally focused and engaged, and then your cox says there’s a wave approaching and suddenly your entire footwell is soaking – I find that kind of thing really fun and exciting. You wouldn’t be doing this if there wasn’t a meaningful purpose behind it. We have this idea as a crew about always being “present” in what we are doing: you are thinking about the stroke you are on rather than the fact you have 400 more ahead of you. I rarely feel as present as when a bucketful of freezing water has just landed on my head! You can’t not be alert.



What are you eating to build your strength for the race?



I’m pretty lenient on myself with my diet! We eat lots of complex carbs and protein at the right times for fuel and recovery before and after sessions, with high nutrient content to ward off colds and injury. But a bit of cake and chocolate still keeps us sane: Nutella and bananas with seeds in porridge is a current favourite. There’s no alcohol ban as such but I know it affects my training so I don’t really go down that route. I’d find it a much greater hardship to give up chocolate!



Much has been made of the public weigh-in alongside the men at the Royal Academy this year. What was the experience like?



This year more than any I enjoyed it: it’s the first time we see the Oxford line-up and do something public as a crew that isn’t just rowing. Oxford always look very serious but our coach has the impression you want to look as relaxed as possible. In previous years, you’d stand on the scale and be the only person in the room who couldn’t see the weight flashing up in huge red numbers below you. This was the first year the presenter actually read out our weights. Though being weighed in public isn’t something I’d look to do every year, having Clare Balding there to make the announcements was brilliant! I would have found it exciting enough because of her past as a Cambridge English student, but she’s also made some fantastic comments to the media about the support of women’s sport, and her decision to present our Boat Race rather than the Grand National is a really powerful statement.



You’re in the final year of your English degree. How did you manage to balance work and training?



The problem (which is really a positive I guess) is that I really love both my sport and work. At the end of my first year I spoke to my coach and said “right, I was never sporty and now I’ve had this wonderful experience rowing I’m going to sit in coffee shops and read books because I really love English”. He said ok, but if you put all your eggs in one basket and your work slips a bit then you feel everything you’re existing for is falling apart. His advice to maintain a balance has proved to be true. For the period of time that rowing isn’t progressing as I’d like or I’m not getting the best essay feedback then there is always the other thing I care about to pull me through. But I do have GB trials five days after the boat race and then two dissertations to submit the day after that, so it currently feels like all-systems-go!

 



What support has Caius given you as a college?



Caius have really been as helpful as they could be. My college tutor has liaised with a member of the rowing senior executive committee, and I’ve been able to split my final year into two, which has helped enormously. My director of studies has been very patient and gives the impression of having confidence that I’ll get there in the end. I wouldn’t have tried sport without Caius, and they support rowing strongly: Caius Boat Club has a really productive and helpful attitude. When I first started, our women’s boat were tenth in the Bumps table and now we’re one step away from having the headship [at the top of the table of college boats] this summer. The men have it already and the only time a college had both men’s and women’s headships was Caius in 2000 so to do it again would be amazing.



You’ve been in losing boats twice: are confident you can change things this year?



My primary objective every year has been to win my boat race, so in some ways it means a lot. But I also know that I want to cross the line with a sense that I personally got myself to the best place I could in that year and then pulled out my best performance on the day.

Now instead of lining up against Oxford I want to line up against the best past version of myself – to have got myself to that optimum place. It has been my favourite year of trialling and everything is in place for it to be a very fulfilling race.

 

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