Famous rower Roz refused club membership
A WORLD-renowned rower has been refused membership to a snooty rowing club.
Roz Savage, from Emsworth, rowed 3,000 miles earlier this year.
The 38 year-old is one of the foremost female rowers in the world and as well as her amazing feat across the world's oceans she has rowed twice for Oxford in the Oxford and Cambridge boat race.
She is now getting ready to row solo across the pacific.
But the Leander Club, which boasts it is 'the oldest and most renowned' rowing club in the world, doesn't't think she deserves to be a member.
Olympic giants such as Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell are all members.
In the shocking rejection letter, the club - based in Henley-on-Thames, scene of the annual Henley Regatta - said: 'Unfortunately the committee is of the opinion that Miss Savage fails to meet the criteria we use in assessing 'proficiency of oarsmanship', which is a measure of excellence rather than endurance.'
Miss Savage said from America yesterday: 'It is a very prestigious club and I really would not want to say a word against them but it did cause me a little upset.
'The question it did raise in my mind was why do they admit men who have rowed for Oxford and my two half blues were not enough?
'I'm trying to be diplomatic because I have some very good friends at the club and I'm not trying to pretend that Ocean rowing is technically excellent because it is not but I did think that they might have been swayed by the fact I rowed for Oxford.'
But Robert Treharne Jones said she simply hadn't done enough.
He said: 'To be an ordinary member and to be able to wear the club's colours you must have competed in a world championship, the Olympics or have won the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.
'Miss Savage did not win the race and one of the races was actually a reserves race.
'We acknowledge the fact that rowing across the Atlantic is an awesome feat but it is very much about endurance not what you need to become an ordinary member.'
The club has offered her an 'associate membership' which simply means she can use the club's facilities but cannot wear the club's colours.
She plans to have another go after she has completed the Pacific crossing.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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