Sam’s the man for women’s eights
Sam Bosworth is dipping into fresh rowing territory this year.
The 23-year-old is no stranger to the sport, having coxed national crews at junior and under-23 level since 2012. But this year is different.
It’s his first year at the elite level, and he’s the first male to be calling the shots for a women’s crew.
World Rowing has this year eliminated the necessity for the cox to be of the same gender as the rowers.
Not that Bosworth thinks there’s any distinction to be drawn in his role now from his previous experiences.
“There’s no real difference between the men and women,” he said. “We’ve got an awesome culture, we work well together and get on as a unit, and we’ve got one common goal. There’s no different dynamic coxing men to women.”
The mix is working impressively this year too, as they prepare for the world championships, starting in Florida on September 24.
The women’s eight won gold at their first World Cup this year, in Poznan, Poland in June, clocking 6m 01.270s, one second ahead of Rio Olympic silver medallists Britain, with Rio champions — and winners of the last three Olympic golds — the United States third.
They followed that with a silver medal at the high calibre Lucerne cup regatta in July, in 6m 04.830s, 2s behind the tough Romanians.
“We’ve had a really good start to the campaign, we’re a fresh crew coming back from Rio. We went to Europe, picked up a few medals and as a crew we’ve just got better and better, so it’s pretty exciting leading into the worlds.”
Lucy Spoors, Ashlee Rowe, Kelsi Walters and Georgia Perry have come in from last year, to join two-time Olympic medallist Rebecca Scown, Ruby Tew, Kelsey Bevan and Emma Dyke.
There’s a new coach too, Timaru’s Dan Kelly stepping up from age group work.
Bosworth picked up rowing, more specifically coxing, while Christ’s College. or at
“I was playing cricket at the time and needed a bit of a change. The rowing coach egged me along so I thought why not try it.
“From day one I got put straight in the cox seat. The coach look at me and said ‘yip, you’re a cox’.” Which Bosworth half expected anyway. He steered the national junior eight in 2012, then four years with the under-23s.
So what’s the key to being a quality cox?
“The big thing for me, and this is my sixth crew in six years, is to be adaptable and learning about each athlete and how to deal with different athletes and coaches.
“That’s the big thing — and having a thick skin. A lot of time you will get told what to do and sometimes that’s under emotion. So you’ve got to be able to take criticism.”
That said, Bosworth agreed that in a sense the cox role equates to the skipper. He, or she, is calling the shots tactically as the cox can see where they’re going and best read where the challenges are coming from across the course.
“But I communicate with, say, Emma on stroke, Rebecca in six seat, then we stop and have a debrief and talk about how we can get better.
“You’re working with different athletes. Some need a couple of words, some need a little more explanation of what we need.
“Everyone’s different. Everyone communicates differently. So far so good.”
The young man from Waipara, north Canterbury, moved up to Cambridge full time late last year.
He was at Lincoln University, and is working towards an environmental planning degree, and has an interest in landscape architecture. For now, though, Bosworth makes no bones that Tokyo is the focus.
“You’ve got to look at the bigger picture. My goal, our goal, is to go through to Tokyo as an eight but it’s about getting it right now, so when we get there we’ve been through every situation and done all the work for that final race.”