Caption: The crews for the 2024 Gemini Boat Race will be unveiled at a public event for the first time in history at the iconic Battersea Power Station on Wednesday 13th March 2024. Credit: BRCL/The Boat Race (left) and Peter Landers (right)
The Boat Race Company is delighted to announce that the crews for the highly-anticipated 2024 Gemini Boat Race will be unveiled during a public event at the iconic Battersea Power Station on Wednesday 13th March at 7:30pm.
The announcement comes as the university boat clubs of Cambridge and Oxford approach the final stages of their preparations for the latest installment in one of the world’s most famous annual sporting events.
The 2024 Gemini Boat Race takes place in Putney on Saturday 30th March 2024 – with the Women’s Race starting at 2:46pm and the Men’s Race at 3:46pm – renewing an intense rivalry which stretches back nearly 200 years.
For the first time in Boat Race history, the naming of the crews will be a public event. Local sports fans, students and shoppers visiting Battersea Power Station are encouraged to join dozens of Boat Race alumni, VIPs and special guests, as each university boat club unveils the nine person crews which will compete in the legendary race.
The main event will start in Turbine Hall B at 7:30pm on Wednesday 13th March with introductions from BBC Sport commentator Andrew Cotter and Siobhan Cassidy, Chair of the Boat Race Company, before the selected women’s crew and the selected men’s crew members are invited onto the stage to be announced publicly. Andrew Cotter will then interview the head coaches of each university, providing exclusive first-hand insight into their preparations and hopes for the event.
Members of the public are encouraged to get into the spirit of The Boat Race whilst watching the event at Battersea Power Station by getting behind either the Light Blue of Cambridge or the Dark Blue of Oxford as the crews are announced.
Earlier in the day, between 4pm and 5:45pm, the Boat Race trophies will be on display in Turbine Hall B inside the Grade II* listed Power Station, where members of the public will have the opportunity to have their photo taken with the trophies.
The Men’s Trophy – The Aberdeen ‘Quaich’ – is presented to the winning crew and features a map of the course on the interior of the Quaich, as well as a changeable finial on the top of the lid. This is either an Ox or a Lion depending on who the holders of the trophy are at any given point in time.
Meanwhile, the Women’s Trophy – The Newton Trophy – features lion and crown symbols to represent the clubs involved.
From 6pm until 6:45pm, there will be a Q&A with well-known Boat Race alumni, including Team GB rowers Imogen Grant (Cambridge), Dave Ambler (Oxford), Freddie Davidson (Cambridge), Tom George (Cambridge) and Ollie Wynne-Griffith (Cambridge) – all of whom will be competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics for Team GB, as well as Erin Kennedy (Oxford) – who will be competing in the Paralympic Games.
The 2024 Gemini Boat Race will take place on Saturday 30th March, with the 78th Women’s Race to be followed shortly after by the 169th Men’s Race. The famous Championship Course stretches over 4.25 miles of tidal Thames in west London between Putney and Mortlake.
2023 saw Cambridge University win both the men’s and women’s races, leaving the overall records as 86-81 in the favour of Cambridge Men’s and 47-30 in the favour of Cambridge Women’s.
In fact, Cambridge won an unprecedented clean sweep of races across the 2023 event. The whitewash has left Oxford determined to build winning crews for the 2024 event, which has also seen the Oxford men’s and women’s boat clubs unify as one single club for the first time in their history. This follows the unification of the Cambridge clubs in 2020. The four separate boat clubs in 2019 are now just two, Oxford University Boat Club (OUBC) and Cambridge University Boat Club (CUBC).
First raced by crews from Oxford and Cambridge University in 1829, The Boat Race is one of the world’s oldest and most famous amateur sporting events, offering an unrivalled educational experience to the student athletes who take part.
Providing free access to watch the races unfold on the River Thames, the Boat Race is regularly attended by over 250,000 spectators on the riverbank and watched by millions more on television.
Siobhan Cassidy, Chair of The Boat Race Company, commented: “We’re excited to be holding the annual crew announcement at the iconic Battersea Power Station. This year we will be looking forward to bringing the event to the public and powering the imagination of future generations of rowers.”
Sam Cotton, Head of Asset Management at Battersea Power Station Development Company, said: “Battersea Power Station and The Boat Race are British icons, and with the London landmark’s riverside location, it’s the perfect venue to host the first ever public unveiling event for the 2024 crews. Our aim is to always offer something new for visitors to enjoy, and what could be more exciting that being amongst the first people to find out who will be rowing in this year’s iconic race, as well as getting the opportunity to meet members of Team GB and Paralympics GB 2024.”
What: 2024 Boat Race crew announcement
When: Wednesday 13th March, 4pm – 8:40pm GMT
Where: Ground Floor, Turbine Hall B, Battersea Power Station, London, SW11 8BU