Seaforde’s Sarah has her eyes on Boat Race

Seaforde’s Sarah has her eyes on Boat Race

7 March 2012

THERE will be a local flavour to this year’s Women’s University Boat Race, which takes place on the Thames at the end of the month.

Sarah Knight, from Seaforde, is vying for a place on the Cambridge boat for the big race at Henley on Sunday, March 25.

Twenty-two year-old Sarah, who is studying for a master’s degree in engineering, is a former pupil of St Macartan’s Primary School, Loughinisland, and Assumption Grammar School, Ballynahinch.

She has shown a keen interest in rowing ever since starting at Cambridge.

She was a member of her college rowing club for three years and this year has been training with the university rowing team.

She is one of 12 girls hoping for a place on the Cambridge boat at Henley. Needless to say it’s a rigorous regime which can involve up to three gruelling sessions per day, six days a week.

Two days a week she cycles from her home at 5am so that she and her team can have two hours of rowing on the River Cam before lectures begin.

She also cycles to and from her boat club three or four times per day.

During the Christmas holidays, Sarah continued her hectic training in Down Leisure Centre either in the gym or at the early morning swims.

Last summer she successfully completed a 1,200-mile canoe trip along the Danube from Vienna to the Black Sea.

Later this year she hopes to cycle to Norway and the Arctic Circle with her boyfriend, George Saville, who is also studying engineering at Queen’s College, Cambridge.

Sarah’s mum, Bronagh, said: “I just hope Sarah does well.”