text: Melissa Wilson and her team-mates are on the brink of making history. On Saturday, at the 161st Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, the women’s crews will battle the same Thames course as the men, who will follow an hour later. After decades of campaigning and 88 years since the first women to race were jeered by male spectators, they get equal billing. And for Wilson’s grandfather, 85-year-old Richard Cowell, from East Kilbride, it will be a momentous day. He is not up to the journey to watch his granddaughter compete for Cambridge but will still see the race, which will be televised for the first time. Wilson, 21, said: ‘I remember when I was 14 watching with my dad and my brother and saying “Are there going to be women on?” They laughed — not in a malicious way — and said: “There aren’t any women, you could cox I guess”. So the fact that 10 years on there is a women’s race on the Tideway and I’m in it is pretty remarkable. It’s so wonderful that my grandfather will be able to watch it, too.’ Melissa Wilson (left) and Caroline Reid of Cambridge Women's boat crew at Thames Rowing Club in London . Clare Balding gave up her regular stint on Channel 4’s Grand National coverage to present the event because she wants to send a message about the importance of women’s sport. ‘It was a big decision to make,’ said Balding. ‘But there will never be another first women’s Boat Race on the Tideway.’ Her statement was welcomed by Caroline Reid, the Cambridge president. ‘It brings the attention of another audience, people who follow Clare,’ said Reid, 24. ‘Maybe people who support the Grand National disagree but they will at least be aware it’s happening and that is a good thing.’ Wilson, a third year English literature student and Reid, in her fifth year of veterinary medicine, rise at 5.30am each day for training, gym work and lectures, then it’s back out on the river in the afternoon. Cambridge Women's Boat Crew including Wilson (front) rowing the Thames . Reid, Claire Watkins and Wilson prepare ahead of the Boat Race next Saturday . Until this year, the women’s race was held a week before the men’s at Henley. The course was 1.2 miles compared with this year’s 4.22 mile battle from Putney to Mortlake. ‘At Henley it’s straight, so conditions are largely the same the whole way down,’ said Reid. ‘Tideway conditions change because the river bends. There’s a different mental and tactical side, which is exciting.’ But Reid refuses to be seen as a pioneer. ‘The first women’s race was in 1927 and there were a lot of people against it, talking about whether women should be rowing at all and what they should be wearing, so they were the pioneers. We’re just carrying on in their footsteps,’ she said.
target: After decades of campaign the women's crews are to make history .
  Boat Race set to take place on the River Thames next Saturday .