Heidi Long and Rowan McKellar win women’s pair at British Olympic Rowing Trials for Paris 2024 – ‘A big boost’

Heidi Long believes the heat of battle helped fire her to a redemptive victory at the British Olympic Rowing Trials.

The Chalfont St Peter star combined with Rowan McKellar to lay down a marker for Paris 2024 after coming out on top in the women’s pair event at Caversham.

After a disappointing run in Saturday’s time trial, the duo responded with a rousing victory to give Long fresh hope of a maiden Games appearance.

“We’re really happy,” said the 27-year-old, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme.

“We knew we had a lot to do to turn it around so we just tried to stay in our lane, focus on the process and we couldn’t be happier with the result.

“This is the first side by side racing we’ve done all year and we both love it. We love racing and getting against everybody.

“We can really take a big boost from a good race where there were difficult conditions and lane draws, and trust that this is what we’re good at and that we’ve got time to make it perfect before the summer.”

McKellar echoed those sentiments: “I’m just so happy. I weirdly went into this confidence after a bad day, I was so confident and just thought, ‘please can we do the job?’

“I knew we could do it. We’ve been going well and I’m super pleased we’ve done it.”

Long has been earmarked for success at the top level for some time, having competed at a Rowing World Cup event in 2021.

She finished fourth on her first senior team appearance and just a year later completed the 2022 season unbeaten in the women’s four, with gold at the World and European Championships.

But with double Olympic gold medallist Helen Glover among those vying for a spot in the boat, Long knows she cannot afford to take her eye off the ball.

“I have no idea what the Games is going to be like, so I’m just taking it one Games at a time and seeing how much we can step up each season and each race,” she said.

“It’s a super strong squad and it’s all to play for over the next few months.

“I’m hoping we can come together to get all those seats into medal positions.”

Subject to selection, Long’s path to Paris will continue at April’s World Cup event in Italy, but she is refusing to look too far ahead.

“I can’t imagine what it would mean to get there, my emotions are all over the place now because this is a step in the right direction,” she added.

“I can’t think about the prospect of it too much, it’s just about taking the most out of every single day and making those small changes, and hopefully the process will start to produce results.”