Oarsome achievement
Congratulations to former St Kilda Road school captain, Alice Arch (OW2011), who has been selected to compete in the Australian Under 23 women’s double scull team, to compete in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in August this year.
Alice completed a Bachelor of Science at The University of Melbourne, majoring in Psychology, is now completing an honours degree, and plans to study a Masters of Clinical Psychology in the future.
Alice rowed in the Year 9As, 10As, and the Senior First VIII, whilst in Years 11 and 12. Modestly, Alice says “I never viewed myself as anything special at all, I just remember I used to train really hard over summer to try to retain my spot in the top boat!” She now rows for the Melbourne University Boat Club and has also represented Victoria and competes in singles, doubles and quad crew divisions, in the lightweight category.
In 2015 after just missing out on the Under 23 national team, Alice represented Australia in the lightweight double scull at the World University Games in Gwangju, Korea. This year she was selected, after a long trialling process, in the Australian Under 23 women’s double scull.
Since being selected on this latest team, Alice trains up to five hours a day on some days. This could involve a two-hour row in the morning, followed by a 90-minute cross training bike or ergo session, followed by a 90-minute weights session some evenings. All in all, this can add up to more than 25 hours per week. Alice coaches girls’ rowing for Wesley and loves it. “I love coaching and giving back to the program that got me so involved in the sport in the first place.” This season, she coordinated the Year 9 girls program. “I think rowing at Wesley is in a very exciting position at the moment, there is a huge sense of momentum amongst the kids and coaches and we are really moving in the right direction. We had our most successful season in a long time this year and I am really excited to work on best fostering this shift in culture and to see what the next few years can bring.”
When asked how she manages to juggle her study and sporting commitments whilst fitting in a social life, Alice says that it can be tricky, and adds “Getting enough sleep has been important to make sure that I can get through everything I need to do during the day. Also it has also been key to understand when priorities should shift, like around exam time for uni, or in the lead up to peak competition - I need to recognise when to focus more and put more effort into different areas.”
If you would like to help get Alice over to Rotterdam, please follow this Rowing Australia fundraising link https://asf.org.au/u23-world-championships/
We congratulate Alice and will proudly follow her successes!