A student from the University of Worcester, who was selected as part of the Great Britain squad for the forthcoming World Rowing Under 23 Championships in the Czech Republic, has been forced to withdraw from the squad just days before she was due to fly.
Sarah Ferris rowing. Photo courtesy of Ben Rodford Photography
Sarah Ferris, 21, who has just completed her studies in Physiotherapy at Worcester, said: “Honestly I’m heart-broken. I was so excited to be selected after working so hard towards this moment for three years, and to have all that taken away just before we were due to fly out is very hard to take.”
Sarah, who had been preparing for the World Championships with crew-mates at the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake in Caversham, discovered that one of the coaches of someone she had been staying with had tested positive for coronavirus, and although she had not herself come in to contact with this person, it meant she was not able to travel with the squad.
“Losing out because of a contact of a contact, not even someone I’d met myself, I hadn’t heard of that before,” she said. “It makes it particularly hard to take.”
Although she is no longer able to travel with the British squad, her selection is still officially recognised, and once the disappointment of this moment has passed, she can derive a huge amount of pride from having made it from novice to international athlete in just 3 years at university.
Sarah, from Belfast, who only took up rowing when she moved to Worcester to pursue her dream of becoming a physiotherapist, admitted that it is incredible to think about how events have unfolded.
“Originally I joined the rowing club at the Uni’ because I was looking for a sporting opportunity to keep me busy. I’d never been in a boat before,” she said.
“At first, I was very wobbly on the water, and I think I frustrated my coach because all I’d say is that I didn’t want to fall in!”
But Sarah has always had a remorseless work-ethic, and even when the pandemic hit and she wasn’t able to get out on the water, she found a way to keep her training up.
Having to train alone because of the coronavirus restrictions, and often having to work an eight hour shift on placement for her course before shutting herself up in her friends’ shed for a gruelling training session on the rowing machine, Sarah had to work hard to maintain her focus.
“I just kept thinking ‘I haven’t come this far for nothing’, so I had to keep going,” she said. “Plus which, during placement at the height of the pandemic I was working with people at the hospital who were so very ill, and I just told myself that I was very fortunate to even be well enough to do this, and to have this opportunity, so I felt like I owed it to them too.”
Having come so far in such a short space of time, and having worked so hard to reach the dizzy heights of international selection despite all the barriers put in her path by the pandemic, Sarah is understandably devastated to have missed out at the 11th hour because of complications beyond her control.
“If I had failed for some reason that would be easier to take,” she said. “But this feels really tough because it was all taken out of my hands and I was powerless to do anything about it.”
Having just completed her degree in Physiotherapy at the University of Worcester, she at least has the reassurance of a degree in a professional field that she is passionate about pursuing. And for Sarah, her commitment to her twin careers remains equally strong.
“I am passionate about physiotherapy, and becoming the best physio that I can be,” she said. “It’s a wonderful career and I feel very fortunate to have a degree at my back.”
“As for next steps, I’m obviously not sure at the moment,” she added. “I need to go home to Belfast and think everything through. There are European Championships in rowing later in the summer, and I have received an offer to row with Leander Club next year, so now I need to think about if I want to really commit to the rowing and try and push for selection for the senior GB squad in the future.”
Whichever path she chooses to take, Sarah is in a strong position having balanced the dual pressures of study and sport throughout her time at university. She was part of the Talented Athletes Sports Scholarship Scheme at Worcester, which aims to support elite and talented athletes to pursue their sporting ambitions whilst fulfilling their academic potential. And having gone from wobbly novice to international standard in three short years, whilst training equally hard for a future career in physiotherapy, not to mention the disruption that the pandemic caused in both her studies and her sport, Sarah clearly has the strength and determination to make it in whichever field she chooses to pursue next, or in both, should that be the path she decides to take.