Caption: The men’s and women’s crews of Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Clubs were officially announced at a spectacular public event at the iconic Battersea Power Station this evening. Credit: BRCL/Row360
The crews for The Gemini Boat Race 2024 were officially unveiled at a spectacular crew announcement event held at the iconic Battersea Power Station this evening.
With preparations for The Gemini Boat Race 2024 entering their final stages, the university boat clubs of Oxford and Cambridge revealed the 36 student rowers who will compete in one of the world’s most famous annual sporting events.
The Gemini Boat Race 2024 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. The event will be broadcast live on BBC One from 2pm BST.
It was the first time the annual crew announcement was staged as a public event and saw a throng of sports fans, families, shoppers and passers-by gather alongside VIP guests including Olympians, Boat Race alumni, university boat club members and the crews’ loved ones inside Battersea Power Station’s famous Turbine Hall B to witness the crews take the stage and show their support to the two universities.
Kicking off the announcement were the crews for the Women’s Race, with the rowers confirmed to take part as:
Oxford Women (coached by Allan French): Sarah Marshall (bow), Ella Stadler (President), Tessa Haining, Claire Aitken, Julia Lindsay, Annie Sharp, Lucy Edmunds, Annie Anezakis (stroke), Joe Gellett (cox).
Cambridge Women (coached by Paddy Ryan): Gemma King (bow), Jo Matthews, Clare Hole, Jenna Armstrong (President), Carina Graf, Carys Earl, Iris Powell, Megan Lee (stroke), Hannah Murphy (cox).
The unveiling of the crews for the Men’s Race followed, with the rowers confirmed to take part as:
Oxford Men (coached by Sean Bowden): Saxon Stacey (bow), Harry Glenister, Jelmer Bennema, James Doran, Elias Kun, Frederick Roper, Leonard Jenkins, Elliot Kemp (stroke), William Denegri (cox).
Cambridge Men (coached by Rob Baker): Sebastien Benzecry (bow, President), Noam Mouelle, Thomas Marsh, Augustus John, Kenneth Coplan, Thomas Lynch, Luca Ferraro, Matt Edge (stroke), Ed Bracey (cox).
The crews were joined on stage by BBC Sport commentator, Andrew Cotter, who held a Q&A with the rowers and their coaches, with both university boat clubs showing their fighting talk and exuding optimism ahead of the resumption of a bitter rivalry stretching back nearly 200 years.
The announcement capped off a celebratory evening for The Boat Race which kicked off with a Q&A, also hosted by Andrew Cotter, with well-known Boat Race alumni, including Team GB rowers Imogen Grant (Cambridge), Dave Ambler (Oxford), 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.
Meanwhile, the Boat Race trophies were placed on display in Turbine Hall B inside the Grade II* listed Power Station, where members of the public were given the opportunity to have their photo taken with the trophies.
Siobhan Cassidy, Chair of The Boat Race Company, commented: “The annual crew announcement is always an exciting moment in The Boat Race season and we were delighted to make it a public event for the first time at Battersea Power Station.
“It was great to see so many members of the public getting behind the selected crews and enjoying photo opportunities with the Boat Race trophies. We’re looking forward to welcoming them and thousands more along the Championship Course for the ultimate Party on the River in two weeks’ time.”
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, including viewing spots at Putney Embankment, Bishop’s Park, Furnivall Gardens and Duke’s Meadow, the Boat Race is regularly attended by over 250,000 spectators on the riverbank and watched by millions more on television.
For more information about The Gemini Boat Race 2024 visit https://www.theboatrace.org/
For more information about the crews and for rower bios visit https://www.theboatrace.org/private-crewlists
