Her nerves were shredded and her body was feeling the strain but one of Sarah Gray's toughest weeks ended in jubilation on Friday when she was named in New Zealand's Olympic rowing squad.
"Extremely nervous ... emotionally and physically stressful" was how the 21-year-old Wanganui rower described last week's national trials and the anxious wait for the team announcement. Despite having been part of the quadruple sculls crew that took the bronze medal at the World Championships on Lake Bled in Slovenia in September and qualified the boat for this year's London Olympics, Gray knew there were no guarantees in the ultra-competitive world of NZ rowing.
And she was under extra pressure as a back injury put her off the water for three weeks and meant she missed last month's national championships when all the Olympic contenders were in action.
"My back came right just in time for last week's trials," said the former Aramoho Wanganui club member who was back in her home town on a flying visit yesterday.
The trials consisted of work on the ergometer and a series of races between quad crews with people being switched from boat to boat.