Published: Wednesday, 2nd July, 2008 7:00am

Clovenfords rower makes waves

by Alexa Brown

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A ROWER from Clovenfords has tasted success after her team qualified to become one of only eight female crews to compete at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta to be held this weekend.

Susie Logan, who was brought up in Clovenfords and now lives in Oxford, started rowing competitively only four years ago when she joined Wallingford Rowing Club.

On Friday, she and her seven teammates beat top teams from all around the world to qualify for the annual regatta at Henley, which is notoriously male-dominated.

Susie told the Border Telegraph: 'Our coach told us that if we were going to qualify for Henley Royal we would have to be prepared to make physical demands on ourselves that we had never made before and maintain our focus as we went through real physical pain.

"As we boated we were reminded that this was not about our own personal discomfort in the race but about putting all that aside for the sake of the crew.

'With the words of the coach ringing in our ears we pushed ourselves harder than any of us had ever done before. About 10 minutes after the race there was an announcement telling us that we had qualified. We were ecstatic - jumping around and screaming!'

The senior women"s 8 team will have little time to celebrate however as their first outing at Henley will be this Friday when they take on a composite crew from the Universities of London and Nottingham.

Susie added: 'Whatever the outcome we are very proud of our achievement. Very few women rowers ever get to row at this prestigious and predominantly men"s event.'

abrown@bordertelegraph.com