Select a region
A medical student who hopes to row for the 2028 Olympics has been awarded a £1,000 bursary to help her achieve that goal.
20-year-old Natacha Searson, a former Haulieu pupil who currently studies medicine at Newcastle University, will use the Jersey Clipper Bursary to "build her profile" and fund her travel, boat rentals, entry fees and accommodation costs in forthcoming rowing competitions.
This year marks a clean stroke for female rowers in the bursary awards, with the runner's-up award of £500 going to Intrepid232 (pictured top, right), a group of four mums who hope to break the world record for the oldest female fours crew to row any ocean as they participate in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge this December.
2021's bursary winners, Steve Hayes and Pete Wright, completed the gruelling 3,000-mile challenge earlier this year in 54 days.
Pictured: Natacha Searson represented Jersey at the Welsh Coastal Championship this year, where she won both her categories.
Natacha started rowing at 14 and has completed the Sark to Jersey race three times, including in a single at 16-years-old.
In December 2022, she represented Jersey at the Commonwealth Rowing Association's Beach Sprints Championships in Namibia, where she came fifth in the female singles, beating a Tokyo Olympics competitor.
Recently, she won both the women's singles and mixed doubles at the Welsh Coastal Championship.
"My long-term goal is to compete at the Rowing Beach Sprints at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and at the 2028 Olympics," she said. "To achieve this, it is important for me to build my profile and I will use the bursary to attend as many local, national and international events and trials as I can this year."
Pictured: Natasha at the Welsh Championships.
These include the GB selection trials and the British Championships.
She said: "If I am selected, this also includes the World Rowing Championships in France, the European Rowing Championships in Italy and the World Beach Games in Bali."
While Natacha specialises in sprints, the runners-up have their sights set on a marathon – 3,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean, from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean.
Pictured: Helene, Julie, Rosemary, and Alison, the members of Intrepid232.
The Intrepid232 team consists of four working mums – Rosemary Satchwell, Helene Monpetit, Alison Smithurst and Julie Brady – whose combined age at the start of the race is reflected in their team title.
They have already amassed 1,000 followers on their social media pages.
As well as aiming to break the world record for the oldest female fours crew to have ever rowed any ocean – set at 68 days in 2015 by four Yorkshire mums rowing the Talisker Challenge – they are raising money for the Grace Crocker Foundation and the Blue Marine Foundation.
The team will put their award towards the cost of essential medical kits.
Mrs Brady said: "While we each have our own personal reasons, our main aim is to show that if you are determined and prepared for a lot of hard work, you can achieve – whatever your age or gender."
The annual Jersey Clipper Bursary, established in 2007 with funding from Dandara, Les Pas Holdings and UBS, is now in its sixteenth year.
It offers budding seafarers of any age the chance to receive financial aid for their nautical ambitions and can be used for attending a training course, participating in a watersports competition or ocean race – anything with a maritime theme.
The 2022 winner was police detective turned stand-up paddle boarder Verity Thomas, who used the award to assist with her costs when she represented Great Britain at the International Canoe Federation World Championships in Poland.
WATCH: Jersey mums aim to smash ‘world’s toughest row’ record
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.