Sports

Harriet Stevens: Bowler wins two national titles while eight months pregnant


Harriet Stevens has won two indoor and two outdoor titles this year

What did you do in the final few weeks before you had your first baby?

Perhaps it involved constructing some flat-pack furniture, picking out cute little romper suits, maybe a baby shower or watching a box set with your feet up.

It probably did not involve winning two national sports titles.

But that is just what bowler Harriet Stevens did this month as she won the English fours and the national under-25s singles title at Royal Leamington Spa while eight months pregnant.

“The amount of comments that I had that I shouldn’t be doing this in my condition was ridiculous,” she told BBC Sport after her title-winning exploits for the Torquay-based Kings Bowls club.

“A lot of the officials said ‘I think you need to watch yourself’ – I don’t think any of them wanted to deliver a baby on the green, but a lot of the spectators were mainly in awe at the fact that I was able to play 13 games in three days.

“I definitely felt like I’d been hit by a bus after the three days, I was aching all over,” said Stevens, now taking a rest with about two weeks to go before her baby is due.

‘I’ve had a very lucky pregnancy’

Harriet Stevens (right) with her Kings Bowls Club teammates Emma Cooper, Lauren Hackett and Hayley James after winning the national fours title

The NHS advises