YORK rower Janine Lamb is facing her biggest university challenge.

She is a member of the Oxford Blue Boat taking on rivals Cambridge in the Women's Varsity Boat Race tomorrow.

The 27-year-old oarswoman, a third year postgraduate student at Keble College can't wait for the big confrontation at Henley."I love rowing," she said. "It's a great all-round sport and requires a lot of mental toughness."

The former Mill Mount and Millthorpe School pupil first took up the sport when she was studying at York Sixth Form College.She then joined York City Rowing Club where, under coach David Wilde, she had a fair amount of success in fours.

Lamb, from Bankside Close, Upper Poppleton, took a pharmacology degree at Manchester after leaving Sixth Form and is now studying genetics at Oxford.

The 22-strong Oxford women's squad started training for the race against the Light Blues last September and after a ten-day training session at the Olympic Lake at Barcelona in December, the squad have been training for up to 30 hours a week.

Cambridge will start favourites to win the 2,000metre course, being unbeaten since 1991.

The Women's Boat race is one of four races taking part at Henley Boat Races day and will be screened on BBC TV the following week as part of the coverage on the men's Varsity Boat race on the Thames.

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