Welsh duo bid for Boat Race glory
TWO WELSH rowers who launched their careers on Cardiff Bay will be looking to put Dark Blue water between them and Cambridge in tomorrow’s men’s and women’s Boat Races on the Thames.
Wales’ Home Countries singles champion Josh Bugajski began rowing at Cardiff University the day after his 20th birthday, while Rebecca Te Water Naude first picked up a blade three years ago after seeing a Welsh Rowing recruitment poster on her school noticeboard.
Josh, 26, who will row at four in the Oxford crew in the 163rd men’s race, said: “I started rowing in my second year at Cardiff after a friend of a Blue Boat triallist said ‘you’re the right build for a rower, you could row in the Boat Race’. I never believed it would actually happen!”
And Becca, 20, who races at three for the Dark Blues in the 72nd women’s race, added: “I only took up rowing when I was 17 after seeing an ad on the notice board for tall women to take a talent spotting test.
“Some friends had rowed and it was something I’d thought I’d like to try after watching the men’s Boat Race on television.
“I wasn’t very sporty, but I fancied giving it a go. I did some tests and Welsh Rowing took me on with their academy, where I got sent out in a sculling boat on Cardiff Bay. Everyone was quite surprised when I didn’t fall in, me included!”
Pharmacy graduate Josh said: “The excitement’s really building. I’m feeling a lot of pressure personally, as this is my second and last chance after losing narrowly last year.
“It means absolutely everything to me to win at the moment, nothing else matters. Offer me an Olympic gold medal, and I wouldn’t take it.
“Beating Cambridge and winning the Boat Race is the only thing, there’s such a huge rivalry going back nearly two centuries.”
The six-foot four-inch rower, who has rowed for GB at U23 level, said of his early days on Cardiff Bay: “I got flagged up to Welsh Rowing fairly quickly, who thought I had potential physically, but it took me a while to develop the skills on the water. I wasn’t a natural, but I grew into it.
“Now I’ll be racing in front of 100 million watching around the world, but the focus will be firmly in the boat. It’ll just be us and them when we’re sat on the start!”
And he admits he is fired up by last year’s two-and-a-half length defeat to the Light Blues.
“Losing the Boat Race is difficult to get past, it still hurts now a year on, so it’s great to have a second chance to put that right in such a strong boat.
“On our boathouse wall are records of every race, with crew names, and written beside it’s as stark as ‘won’ or ‘lost’. That sums up what it means… after you put so much into it, you get one chance on the day. I want to turn it round and leave on a positive. I’m determined to get a ‘win’ up there.”
Wales cap Becca, who lost out to Cambridge in the women’s reserves race last year, said: “I’m really excited. It crossed my mind that it would be cool to make the Boat Race crew when I applied for Oxford, but never thought it would happen.
“It’s amazing. My Welsh Rowing coach Liz Lewis said I’d maybe row for my college in year one, but I got into the reserve crew which was incredible, let alone the Boat Race crew in my second year.”
The Cancer UK Boat Race coverage begins at 4pm tomorrow, on BBC1, with the 72nd Women Boat Race at 4.35pm and the men’s 163rd Boat Race at 5.35pm.