Pembroke Students Selected to Participate in the Oxford & Cambridge University Boat Races 2017

We are excited to report that several women from Pembroke’s JCR and MCR student body will be representing the University of Oxford at the Boat Races on Sunday 2nd April 2017. The annual competition between rowing crews from Oxford and Cambridge University takes place on the River Thames in West London between Putney and Mortlake.

Undergraduate Flo Pickles (Medicine, Preclinical, 2015) will be in the second seat of the women’s boat and Rhodes Scholar Jess Glennie (MSc Environmental Change and Management, 2015) will be in the fifth seat of the reserve women’s boat race. Vicky Warner (BA Oriental Studies, Arabic and Islamic Studies, 2014) is coxing the men’s reserve boat. She won headship with Pembroke's Men's First Torpid in 2015

We caught up with Flo and Jess before the big event to hear about how they are preparing and find out what motivated them to start rowing.

Flo Pickles

Congratulations on being selected for the OUWBC team participating at the 2017 Boat Races! How are you feeling about Sunday?

Nervous, but excited to realise our full potential after 8 months of training!

Tell us how you got into rowing, what motivated you to start?

My mum rowed for Blondie in the 1985 reserve boat race, so encouraged me to try. I went on the Eton Rowing Courses when I was 13 and, although it’s cliché, I was hooked. I joined my local club, Evesham, and have been rowing ever since.

What is one of your favourite things about the sport?

When you feel that elusive moment where the hull cuts seamlessly and unchecked through the water!

As a Medicine undergraduate, do you have any insights about balancing academic study and extra-curricular activities?

Having to plan around training sessions helps me to structure my time, so that I actually find I work more efficiently than I would otherwise.

What is your fondest rowing memory made in Oxford so far?

Trial Eights this year -  I am a sculler, and only learnt to sweep at Oxford. That was the first point where I felt like I could say I was rowing an eight well, and loving it.

Jess Glennie

Congratulations on being selected for the OUWBC boat participating in the Boat Races 2017! How are you feeling about Sunday?

I’m incredibly excited. I handed in my final MBA assignment about two minutes ago, so now there is nothing else occupying my mind apart from making the boat go as fast as possible on Sunday!

How did you get into rowing, what motivated you to start?

My cousin is a pretty awesome rower (he just broke the record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic in a rowing boat), and about 12 years ago he told me to give it ago. I was 14 years old and had no idea what I was getting into.

You’re currently studying in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, what is your research about?

I am currently doing the MBA, and I am interested in social and environmental architecture. I care about how cities grow and how people live in them. I hope to have an impact on decreasing the segregation and inequality in the urban fabric, so am mostly researching affordable housing in my spare time. 

What is your fondest rowing memory made in Oxford so far?

Making our team bingo for the tideway week. It's just an awesome way of laughing at each other. 

Tell us one of your favourite things about the sport?

I think the beauty of rowing lies in the impossible balance between raw power and skill; between a mad desire to feel wrecked on the finish line while executing a delicate dance. People think it’s a monotonous sport – going through the same motion again and again and again, but no stroke is the same. You’re sitting on a sliding seat, attached to a floating boat, pushing against moving body of water (super dynamic on the tideway) and there are 7 other people responding to the forces around you – and you can feel it all.

Good luck to Flo, Jess, Vicky and the rest of the Oxford Squad for Sunday’s races!

For more information see the official Boat Races website.