Heidi Long and Claire Collins have competed against each other at world championships and Olympic Games, so it is testament to the continued allure of the University Boat Race that they describe it as a “bucket-list event”.
Having last met in the final of the Women’s Eight in Paris last summer, with Long winning bronze for Team GB ahead of Collins’s USA crew in fifth, they were reunited on the banks of the Thames in Putney this week in preparation for Sunday’s race.
