Henley Boat Races

In 2003 Annabel Vernon (CUWBC 2003, Current World Champion W4x, Olympic Silver Medallist W4x 2008) lost her Boat Race. Last year she wrote this piece highlighting the difference between the Men's University Boat Race and the "Other" Boat Races, and how losing drove her to success.

Many of us grew up watching the University Boat Race on television: along with the London Marathon, the Grand National and Wimbledon, it’s part of the British sporting calendar of events that most of the viewing public will watch. It wasn’t until I applied to Cambridge University that I became aware of the ‘other’ Boat Races, for women and lightweights, at Henley.

I went on to become a proud veteran of these ‘other’ Races, and having now been to one Olympic Games and five World Championships, the days training at Ely with the Cambridge women’s boat club seem a long time ago. I competed for Cambridge in 2003, when we were just at the beginning of an Oxford resurgence following a period of Light Blue dominance throughout the nineties. We lost: in fact we didn’t just lose, we were absolutely thumped, walloped, thrashed, call it what you will.

I’ve rowed thousands of strokes on rivers and lakes around the world since then. But my experiences in the Boat Race in 2003 were absolutely pivotal to my development as a rower. It taught me so much about myself, about the nature of sport, about winning and losing, and most importantly I made some of my best friends during my year at CUWBC.

Indeed it’s not an exaggeration to say that had I not rowed for Cambridge, and had I not lost my Boat Race, I wouldn’t have had the drive and the passion to launch myself into national trials and from there to the international stage. Before I rowed for CUWBC, I loved my rowing but I didn’t have a reason to take it any further. After losing in 2003, it suddenly became personal. I wanted to go to Under 23 national trials the following year for the single purpose of proving that our Cambridge crew wasn’t as bad as the result suggested, and to get some small revenge on our opponents. I managed to make the national team, won a medal, and have been a full-time international ever since. I guess I should give some thanks to OUWBC for winning in 2003!

So my Boat Race became the starting point of my rowing career. What is it about this event? Why does it mean so much? I think the answer partly lies in that like all the Varsity matches, it’s binary. You either win, or you lose, and this means it really gets under your skin. There’s no heats or semi finals, and there’s no consolation silver medal so if you come second, it feels like you’ve completely and utterly failed. You never prepare yourself for losing because you think it’s one of those things which will never happen to you. It can take a long time for the losing crew to look beyond the result and appreciate everything else that they’ve achieved.

And this achievement lies in the Henley Boat Races themselves which are a truly special and unique fixture. Yes, they’re not of the standard of the men’s Boat Race; but we are not talking about a men's and a women's version of the same event, we are talking about two completely different events which can't really be compared. The men’s crews are filled with internationals, they have full- time coaches of the highest calibre, and a huge budget to spend on training costs each year.

When I competed, we shared our coach and our boat with one of the colleges, we paid for all our costs from our own pocket, and we’d all been rowing for less than five years. We were training for a university event; the men’s race is not a university event. Instead, what we have at Henley today is a fantastic stage for the light blues and dark blues to fight another battle in the war that has been raging since 1927. We shouldn’t snipe at the differences between men’s and women’s race, but celebrate the positives and applaud those who are willing to put pride on the line and gamble it all on one race just for the chance of saying, I am a winning Blue.

Article written by Annabel Vernon (follow her on Twitter on @prideofcornwall)

The "Other" Boat Races are happening on Sunday 27 March - View the racing schedule.

Photo © Alan Hendrick - Thank you Alan!