The Boat Race crews were unveiled this week but before the university men of Oxford and Cambridge take over the Putney-to-Mortlake stretch of the Thames, 286 women’s eights will row the famous course in reverse.

The women’s Head of the River is tomorrow and although the contest dates back to 1927, it is doubtful if there has been a more inspiring presence than Jen Goldsack, who races for Wallingford.

It is remarkable in itself that the 24-year-old Oxford chemistry graduate moved from novice to international sculler in less than two seasons, but the fact that Goldsack raced the 2005 World Championships in Kaizu, Japan, with a broken shoulder makes her story the stuff of legend.

First, though, Goldsack’s bionics began with an operation on her left forearm. That surgery — in January 2005, 16 months after she tried rowing for the first time — was to correct compartment syndrome, where the protective sheaf around her muscles had hardened.

“Every time I flipped the oar through 90 degrees, my arm would swell to twice the size,” Goldsack said. “I don’t seem to do easy things and my dream was to represent Britain at the worlds later that year, so I saved and took out a loan to pay £3,000 for the operation. It was two months out of a boat that I could ill-afford, but I spent the time training like a demon on my bike. That’s when the comedy of errors began.”

Horror story more like, because on her way home from her first session back on the river, Goldsack met with calamity. “I flew round a corner and went sailing over the handle-bars,” she said. “As I’d just had my wrist fixed, I figured I’d better not put my arms out, so I thought back to my rugby playing days and decided to roll on my shoulder. Next thing, I was lying in an Oxford gutter with my arm dislocated halfway down my back.”

After forcing the arm back in herself, an X-ray revealed nothing more than soft-tissue damage. Although Goldsack had to lift her hand on to the oar, the forwards and backwards movement was relatively unaffected, so she hid her pain and concentrated on technique.

Her club arranged for her to compete in a national trial, which led to a race for a seat in an Olympic boat for 2008. At 5ft 8in and just under 9st, Goldsack is classed as a lightweight, so she was put in the double for the World Championships, paired with Helen Casey, her Wallingford teammate.

Fifth place was tinged with disappointment but after full reconstructive surgery and eight months’ rehabilitation, Goldsack can still set her sights on Beijing. In the meantime, she will be cycling the streets of Oxford a little more carefully.

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