25 March 2017

Hélène Rémond talked briefly to her countrywoman Myriam Goudet about the Cambridge women’s chances to win this year’s Boat Race:

How are you feeling less than two weeks before the race?
I am feeling almost ready! We are leaving Cambridge to go to London for the last ten days before the race. We must use these ten days to find more speed because, obviously, it is never enough. However, the last few weeks have been good and we worked well, now we just need to capitalize, I would say.

It is also a mix between excitement after all these long weeks of training and nerves (good nerves). These last two weeks are very special. We all stay in the same house as a crew. We know that those moments are very special and that we need to enjoy every seconds because the opportunities to race the Boat Race are unique and happen only a couple of times in our life.

What are the odds?
We have had a good season so far. The beginning of the season has been successful as a team at Brit Champ and Four’s Head. More recently, we won at Quintin Head and we came second at WEHoRR [The Women’s Eights Head of the River Race; ed. remark]. We were very pleased with this, as we were only four seconds behind the Leander crew. Our fixtures went well. We worked step by step trying to get the most out of the different events to be able to move forward. Our performance at WEHoRR was very encouraging and we took a lot of confidence from that, now the Boat Race stays the Boat Race and last year proved it once again. This year, the crew has a lot more experience and we are very confident as a crew.

What are your expectations this year?
I want to win!!! But more seriously, I would like to finish the race thinking we gave it our best. It was my biggest frustration last year crossing the line in feeling that I was not even tired. I want to be able to deliver what we are capable of as a crew and to execute the game plan.