The Sunday Times Sport - UK (2021-11-14)

20 November 14, 2021The Sunday Times

Sportswomen of the Year

Europe’s Solheim Cup team,

of which Reid was part, are

shortlisted for the Sky Sports

Team of the Year award.

To vote for them, visit

sportswomenoftheyear.co.uk

This year, she was paired with

Leona Maguire, the 26-year-old

rookie who became the star of the

cup, hailed as a standout new player

in the sport. “I think I’m pretty good at

making people feel comfortable and

that was my role with Leona,” Reid

says. “I just tried to allow her to be

herself and make her feel as comforta-

ble as possible. She blew me away,

really.”

Before the cup started, Reid tried to

prepare Maguire for what was com-

ing. “We did a couple of practice

rounds together,” Reid says, “and I

just basically said to her, ‘You’ve

never experienced anything like this

before. You’ve got a great résumé but

this is very different, especially on

American soil.’ ” But Reid was also not

prepared for what Maguire would

bring: the young Irishwoman broke

the all-time rookie points record for

any player in either the Solheim or

Ryder Cup.

“I was proud of how she came out

of her shell and showed the world

who she is. I’m not taking any credit

for that but to take her under my wing

and see her blossom is something I’m

very proud of. It was a cool honour

and now we’ve become tight friends,

which is what a Solheim Cup will do to

you.”

This was the best team Reid could

have imagined with a special bond

that, she says, only comes from a Sol-

heim Cup. “You build friendships

with people that never get broken,”

Reid says. “It’s pretty hectic but

Solheim Cup is a very special week.”

F

rom the start of the Solheim

Cup the Europe captain Catri-

ona Matthew gave her players

a sage piece of advice: the golf

ball can’t hear anything. The

team were defending the cup

on foreign soil and the United

States’ home-crowd advan-

tage was stronger than ever.

“It’s always hard on American soil

— the American crowd are very loud,”

Mel Reid, who played on the team at

the Inverness Club in Ohio, says. “It’s

always difficult to play there and, to

put the icing on the cake, we couldn’t

have any travelling fans. We appreci-

ated everyone there who was trying to

be as loud as possible, but we were

outnumbered 1,000 to one.”

It was a record crowd, but barely

anyone was cheering for Europe.

Matthew’s smart way of reframing the

challenge stuck with Reid, who says

the veteran Scot was a “very impress-

ive” captain. Matthew became the

first Europe captain to win back-to-

back Solheim Cups when team

Europe, which included the British

stars Georgia Hall and Charley Hull,

triumphed in Toledo.

The second — and arguably greatest

— challenge that the team faced came

at the 13th hole, when Europe’s

Madelene Sagstrom was punished by

the referee for picking up a ball from

America’s Nelly Korda that had not

dropped, three seconds before the

statutory time had elapsed. Korda was

awarded an eagle putt, despite many

onlookers saying the ball would never

have gone in.

“I personally don’t think it was any-

where close to going in but you can’t

react to things like that, it’s out of your

‘The golf ball can’t hear anything’ –

advice that helped Mel Reid and

Europe retain Solheim Cup on US soil

control, and we knew that straight

away,” Reid says. “It affected Made-

lene a bit because she’s the nicest

person on the planet. But it was none

of the players’ fault — the Americans

nor the Europeans. A rule is a rule.”

Matthew once again proved her

captaincy credentials. “Catriona said

‘After Madelene had

picked up the ball,

Catriona said, “Talk

about it again and I

will shut it down” ’

MADDIE MEYER

Reid, 34, left,

played in a

leadership role

because of her

seniority within

the team. She

believes Europe

captain Matthew

was central to

the team’s

AT THE success

HEART OF

EUROPE

REBECCA

MYERS

BRIT

to us, ‘This is the last time we’re going

to talk about it. If I hear anyone talking

about it, I’m going to shut it down. We

don’t need to waste energy — we’ve

got a big enough feat to try to retain

this cup anyway.’ And no one really

talked about it after that, which is tes-

tament to the leadership,” Reid says.

It was also up to Reid as one of the

more experienced players on the

team to step up and pick up her team-

mate. “A few of us older players,” Reid

says, “made sure Madelene didn’t feel

she was to blame for it because she

certainly was not. She played great for

the rest of the week and I’m proud of

her, how strong she came out of it.”

Reid was playing in a leadership

role this year, drawing on experience

she gained as an assistant in 2019,

when she had missed out on being

picked as a player. “I was obviously

upset at the start because I wanted

to get picked,” she says. “It was a

completely different role for me but

one I’m very proud that I did. It’s very

easy to say, ‘I don’t want to be part of

it,’ but that’s not who I am. I saw what

the captains do, how they do the pair-

ings, and what the staff do for us —

they work so hard to make sure every-

thing is so smooth. I found a new

appreciation for everyone involved in

a Solheim Cup.”

’Hasina has created this beautiful safe place for us’

Behind a metal door on a quiet street

in Luton, Hasina Rahman is guiding a

group of women through a roly-poly.

Under posters of mixed martial arts

fighters and the watchful gaze of a

tiger’s eyes, with the slogan

“Greatness is Earned” emblazoned

on the wall, the youngest, only eight

years old, tumble forward gamely.

The older teenage girls, slouched

in small groups with their friends,

hesitate. Rahman tells them that, as

you get older, you start to develop the

“fear factor”. They are scared of the

impact of the floor in a way they

never were when they were younger.

She is here to help them overcome it.

Rahman spends every Saturday

and Sunday like this, guiding young

girls and women through martial arts

moves, teaching them self-defence

and boosting their self-esteem along

the way. Dozens of girls and women,

from primary school to middle age

and mostly of Muslim faith, come to

Rahman’s Pink Diamond Martial Arts

sessions every week. “I see myself in

them,” she says, smiling. “The

younger ones are very shy, under-

confident. Sometimes their parents

text me to say they are being bullied

at school. This definitely gives them

confidence. In class, you see them

progress, they are smiling, making

friends. It’s just amazing.”

This was her experience of martial

arts, after she discovered karate at 15.

She had been bullied since the age of

11, suffering racist taunts at school,

and her confidence was shattered.

“I needed to find my confidence

and find myself,” she says. “With

martial arts, it doesn’t matter where

you’re from, what religion or race,

everyone is there for the same

reason: to learn martial arts. That’s

what I liked. There’s no judgment.”

It was, she says, love at first sight.

“I got so much more from it than just

learning to fight and that’s what I

want to give to the girls.” Her offering

at Pink Diamond is special: a safe

space where Muslim women who

wear the headscarf and face veil can

train in private, with a trusted female

instructor. “I wear the hijab and

the niqab, the face veil,”

Fahmida Choudhury, 30,

who has attended the

classes for three

years, says

“I had to be very

careful when I went

to sessions — often

they were women-

only but there was a

male instructor. I

wanted to be completely

comfortable.

“Once we go into the room and

everybody has taken everything off

and got their gym wear on, you all

have the same mindset. There is a

really special sisterhood between us.”

It is not only the younger girls who

need a confidence boost: many

women who attend are trying to get

back into sport and fitness after

giving birth or overcoming personal

struggles. “Yesterday a woman

stopped me on the street and said, ‘I

just want to say, your Instagram

is so inspiring’,” Rahman,

left, says. “I put up

motivational quotes

and she said they had

really helped her

with her divorce.”

Rahman, 38, is

passionate about

women and girls

learning self-defence

and runs workshops on

this and anti-bullying

sessions in schools.

She has also written a book,

Heroes: A Guide to Anti-Bullying. “You

have to teach kids from a very young

age how to be kind to others,” she

says. “They can learn to defend

themselves without striking back or

hold themselves in a position where

the other person is unable to strike

them.” She sometimes faces

objections from sceptical parents or

husbands who don’t believe that girls

and women should be learning to

fight, but her own story and belief in

the power of martial arts for self-

esteem, mental health and fitness

wins people over. She says, laughing,

that she has had to remind some of

the younger girls that the moves they

learn in class are not to be used at

home on their brothers.

“There are girls, women, working

women, mums,” Choudhury says.

“To actually see women making time

for the sessions and being so strong,

it completely changed my mindset.

Hasina has created this beautiful safe

place for us to be ourselves.”

lHasina Rahman is shortlisted for

the Grassroots award at the Sunday

Times Sportswomen of the Year

awards in association with Sky

Sports. You can vote for her at

sportswomenoftheyear.co.uk

Rebecca Myers