Now in her final year at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Bahamian Sophie Paine has enjoyed quite a few positive aspects on the boat, having a successful rowing career that began in 2016 at Brown University in the United States of America.
Paine, born in Freeport, Grand Bahama, has served as president, which is similar to captain, of the Cambridge rowing club and helped lead them to the 75th Boat Race that pits her school against the University of Oxford. Last year’s event was canceled due to the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s event was held on April 4 at the River Great Ouse in London, England. Paine and her squad won the 4.2-mile race by almost a boat length.
“The accomplishment that I am proud of and stands out for me is the Boat Race, because I put in almost two years of my life to train for that one race and one moment. Winning that made everything worth it. The world championships seem like a big deal but emotionally it was so rewarding to have so many months of hard work pay off, when we won the Boat Race.”
The victory gave Cambridge a 45-30 all-time advantage over Oxford and bragging rights for a year.
It was a challenging year for the Bahamian and her team. She was home for two months earlier this year and could not get back to England because of the stringent COVID-19 measures in place at the time.
“It was very challenging because of lockdowns. It was difficult to build a sense of team spirit and community, so we had to be creative. It ultimately paid off because we won the Boat Race against Oxford University. It was unlike anything that I have ever done. It was the pinnacle of my whole rowing career,” she said.
Being selected as president of the Cambridge club meant a lot for Paine. She completes her degree at Cambridge later this month.
“It was a huge honor to be selected as president,” Paine said. “It meant that the team saw that I had leadership skills to be able to lead the squad and the experience to act as a representative of the club. There is a lot more than being the captain because you will be called upon to do a lot of stuff with the media, co-ordinate with the coaches and different stakeholders who are involved in a boat race. It was challenging to manage everything at once alongside getting my master’s degree. It was a huge honor to be selected by my teammates to take on that job.”
At Cambridge, Paine completed a Master’s in Business Management, and is currently completing a second master’s degree – this one in sociology.
Another accomplishment for the 24-year-old was participating in the 2019 World Rowing Under-23 Championships in July of that year. She rowed in the women’s eights for Great Britain as she has dual citizenship. Paine was able to help the team take home the silver medal. It is the second highest accomplishment for her. She said she enjoyed that experience.
“The standard of rowing was higher at the international stage but for me, I only trained for that project for about two months with the Great Britain team and was selected. It was amazing to race against other international crews, so the standard was higher as it had rowers who wanted to go to the Olympics. It was a big accomplishment,” she said.
Before she won the Boat Race and the world championships silver medal, and prior to 2016, the former Lucaya International School student had never delved into rowing. In 2016, she started Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and was intrigued by a group of women preparing to go rowing.
“I started rowing on the first day that I did my undergraduate at Brown. I went down to the boat house at school and I saw all of the other girls doing a workout and it was grueling and looked like they were in pain. Strangely enough, something appealed to me about it and I decided to try it out. I went back the next day and every day after that. It has taken me to places that I never thought about. Six years rowing and it has been a huge part of my life,” Paine said. “I was on the team at Brown. We had six boats and they were ranked from numbers one through six. When I first started rowing, I was in the sixth boat as a novice. At the end of the four-year term, I went form a novice to being good and on the upper end of the squad, which was an interesting journey. I learnt a lot along the way.”
Brown participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Ivy League in athletics. Paine helped her team to come away with two league championships, 2016 and 2017. In addition, she and her team rowed at the NCAA Division I Rowing Championships from 2017-2019, in which time she also served as a scholar-athlete.
Paine said she has not made a decision as yet on whether or not she will continue to compete in rowing after she completes her studies.
The post Bahamian Sophie Paine reflects on rowing career appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/bahamian-sophie-paine-reflects-on-rowing-career/
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