York Rower picks up bronze in World Championships at Eton
York Graduate and former Boat Club President Hester Goodsell, 21, won her second consecutive rowing World Championship medal at the proposed 2012 Olympic rowing venue of Dorney Lake, Eton at the end of August.
In a fast final in front of twenty-thousand expectant British rowing fans, Goodsell’s lightweight quad (a sculling boat with four women and eight blades) raced exceptionally to claim a bronze medal. The winning Chinese crew not only smashed the existing world record by a staggering seven seconds but also contained an oarswoman who was just 15 years old.
Goodsell’s achievement is made all the more impressive because she has also been studying for her PGCE at Cambridge this year whilst most of her co-competitors are full-time athletes.
The rowing World Championships take place every year and are comprised of Olympic and non-Olympic events. Although Goodsell’s event this year is not on the Olympic programme for 2008 she has a very real chance of stepping up to the Olympic class lightweight women’s crew next year.
For lightweight women there are just two Olympic places in a double (a sculling boat with two women and four blades), compared to fourteen for men’s openweight rowing, the former domain of Pinsent and Redgrave. This obviously makes the competition for those two places extremely intense and it will be an unbelievable achievement if Goodsell makes it to the start line for Beijing in 2008.
The rowing events at the World Championships break down into both open weight and lightweight categories. To race as a lightweight at the world Championships Goodsell had to weigh in at less than 57.5kg just two hours before the race. As any of you who have been on a rowing machine before will know, the physical demands of the sport are incredibly high.
For lightweights the added pressure of having to factor in worries about your weight can virtually double the stress of competing. Last year, whilst still a full-time undergraduate studying music at the University of York, Hester became U23 lightweight single sculling World Champion and added to this success with a bronze at the senior World Championships in Japan later that summer.
She is now by some distance the most internationally successful athlete that the University has produced in recent years.
Hester’s training is funded by the national lottery so just bear in mind the next time you are considering buying a lottery ticket that you may be helping one of the University of York’s own realise her Olympic dreams in Beijing.
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