Camilla Hadland, rowing commentator Artwork

Girl on the River

Patricia Carswell, aka Girl on the River, loves to row and loves to talk, so it makes sense that in her podcast she'll be chatting to guests from all around the rowing and sporting world about anything and everything to do with rowing. Always informal, occasionally silly, sometimes serious, often informative, she delves into questions such as how athletes become champions, how to promote diversity in sport, the secret to staying alive on an ocean, how to improve your erg score and what to do to keep your body and mind in one piece. Her guests include Olympians, health experts, Atlantic rowers, kit companies, indoor rowers, TV presenters - in short, anyone with something to say about rowing and its place in the world. The podcast isn't just about Girl on the River and her guests, though. Community is everything in rowing, so you, the listener, are an important part of the show. There'll be regular Q&As and listener debates, and if you have suggestions for fantastic guests, she's all ears. Patricia can be contacted at girlontheriverpodcast@gmail.com or on social media at @girlontheriver on all channels - come and have a chat .And until then... next stroke, easy oar.

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Girl on the River

Camilla Hadland, rowing commentator

July 14, 2021 • Patricia Carswell • Season 2 • Episode 5

S2 Episode 5 Camilla Hadland has a voice that many of you will recognise. Having started rowing as a junior at a small club, she won a place in the U23 Women’s 8 and competed at the World Junior Championships in 2010, where they won Britain's first ever women’s gold medal at that event. After university, where she was President of her university boat club, she stopped rowing regularly and moved over into coaching.

Camilla fell into commentating, but soon found herself in demand. In 2018 she won World Rowing’s first ever commentating competition and achieved a spot commentating at the World Cup in Serbia. Since then she’s regularly commentated at international events and is part of the commentary team at the Tokyo Olympics. Having done a couple of stints commentating at my club regatta, I was fascinated to hear all about her experiences and to glean some wisdom from her.

We talked about:

How Camilla got started in rowing and her multiple capsizes
Learning to row in a small club set up
Being selected for the GB Team at the Junior Worlds
The challenges of looking after your health while training at such a high level
Body image and the ups and downs Camilla has had with it
Not making it into the U23 8+ and moving across into coaching
Favourite seat in the boat
How Camilla got started in commentating
How she learned the craft of commentating - how to cater for the whole audience and create atmosphere
Finding your own voice
Different types of event - the different preparations and style
The challenges of live streaming remotely from the European Championships
The idea set up for commentating
How to make an uneventful race sound exciting
Keeping tabs on rowing teams throughout the year
Making mistakes - and learning from them
How to show compassion to a crew losing badly
Essential equipment
Advice for anyone wanting to improve their commentary skills or progress in commentating
Plans for Tokyo and the likely challenges

Let me know if you're inspired to have a go at commentating or to take your experiences of it to a new level. You can find me at @girlontheriver on all channels or by emailing me at girlontheriverpodcast@gmail.com.