This week (18-24 November 2019) is #ThisGirlCan week on Bristol Uni campus. We have a timetable of exclusive female-only classes and club taster sessions, all completely FREE, to encourage more women across campus to get together and get active!
Alongside this timetable of activities, we are featuring on social media a showcase of ordinary women, achieving extraordinary things in world of Sport, Exercise and Health! #WomenInSport
Atlantic Antics
Atlantic Antics 2020 is a self-titled trio of keen rowers – Hannah, Flo and Georgie – who, next year, will take on the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge, a 3,000 rowing race from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, to English Harbour, Antigua.
Why the Atlantic?
Flo: “Because why sit at a desk all day when you could be sat in the middle of the ocean?”
Georgie: “Because rivers are too flat.”
Hannah: “Why not?”
The responses of three women determined in their mission to cross the Atlantic together – a journey of 3,000 miles, against 30 other crews from around the world. Not only that, in doing so they are attempting to become be the fastest female trio to complete the trip, aiming for a crossing of only 50 days. If successful, the trio will beat the current record by 10 full days!
The Team
Particularly exciting, is that two-thirds of the trio are Bristol University Alumni, having met one another as members of the University of Bristol Rowing Club!
Flo attended a Fresher’s taster session for rowing and was immediately hooked by the competitive nature of the sport. She rowed for Bristol throughout her degree, and for local club. Hannah also rowed with UBBC throughout her time at Bristol Uni and becoming Women’s Captain. Hannah saw a number of UBBC members complete the Atlantic Challenge and was inspired to follow in their footsteps one way or another!
Georgie found rowing whilst studying at Lincoln University, and was put in touch with Hannah and by someone in the rowing biz who knew she was also looking for a crew to take on the Challenge. Very quickly, Atlantic Antics was born!
Why the challenge?
In Hannah’s words; why not? The trio are taking on this epic challenge because with the adequate training and preparation, they can! Not only that, they could make history by being the fastest female trio to do so.
Beyond that, Hannah, Flo and Georgie are on a mission to inspire other women to give sport a go. Through this challenge they are supporting Women In Sport, a charity “with the goal of giving every woman and girl in the UK the opportunity to experience the transformational rewards of sport.”
The trio admit that sport didn’t come naturally to all of them, but that “what stuck with all of us from those younger years was the friendship and community found in sport”. These courageous women hope that by sharing their ‘antics’ online whilst they prepare for this epic challenge, they will inspire other women to get involved in sport, at any level, and “find something that they are as passionate about as we are”.
6 am training sessions and gruelling training camps put us through our paces and pushed us beyond our limits. Sport has given us the confidence to always try, regardless of how silly we may look, our lack of natural ability, or the chance of failure.
Atlantic Antics 2020
Atlantic Antics is also supporting Rowing Together for Healthy Minds; a charity changing the attitudes surrounding mental health in rowing.
Follow the antics:
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Twitter