![A sample of yellow water from the River Thames](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/rowing/2024/03/27/TELEMMGLPICT000371923075_17115762779790_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq3Z0iXoSUYRYb8SdC2OvzzxRl_4g9bZuJS-znBr7pZoc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Oxford claim Thames water quality a ‘national disgrace’ before Boat Race
Fears about high levels of E. coli in river prompt debate about safety of traditional cox-dunking victory ceremony
![A sample of yellow water from the River Thames](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/rowing/2024/03/27/TELEMMGLPICT000371923075_17115762779790_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq3Z0iXoSUYRYb8SdC2OvzzxRl_4g9bZuJS-znBr7pZoc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Sean Bowden, the coach of Oxford University Boat Club, has slammed the water quality in British rivers and said E. coli fears over the Thames have prompted a discussion about whether to continue the traditional cox-dunking victory ceremony.
Bowden’s comments came the day after the Environment Agency revealed details of a record 3.6 million hours of sewage discharges into British rivers last year.
More specifically to the Thames – where Saturday’s Boat Race will be staged – surveys found an alarming average of 2,869 E. coli colony-forming units (CFU) per 100ml of water in 16 tests around Hammersmith Bridge. That figure is almost three times the recommended limit.
“It’s a concern,” Bowden told Telegraph Sport during a Boat Race build-up event near the race’s starting line in Putney. “And I’m really glad the papers are pursuing the water companies on it. I am right with them. It’s a national disgrace, isn’t it?
“It would be terrific if the Boat Race drew attention to it. We are very keen to play a part and we recognise we have a role and a responsibility to it.
“Surfers Against Sewage and all these really great people were trying to bring this to our attention years ago. The amount of time it has taken to get traction is a worry. But it does feel like the efforts of those people are paying off and we’re getting somewhere. Why would you want to put your kids out in that?”
![Sean Bowden, the coach of Oxford University Boat Club, with a megaphone in a boat - Oxford claim Thames water quality a 'national disgrace' ahead of Boat Race](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/rowing/2024/03/27/TELEMMGLPICT000001964114_17115759339750_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqne-pO1GTLoTFzRkq1wYwMyHbn8dtWwAIB8wjsdxmixk.jpeg?imwidth=350)
On Tuesday, Boat Race organisers said they had put in place new guidelines which included “guidance regarding the covering up of open wounds, regular hand-washing, a cleansing station at the finish area and highlighting the risks of entering the water”. (In practice, that grand phrase “cleansing station” equates to showers, which have always been available for the athletes to use at the finish line near Chiswick Bridge.)
Rowers and coaches have long had concerns over pollution risks on the Thames, especially after a heavy rainfall. The three-time Olympic gold medallist Andy Triggs Hodge, who represented Oxford in the 2005 Boat Race, told Telegraph Sport: “There were days on the Thames when we would come out of the water with a black slick on the boat.”
“This problem has been evident for decades,” added Triggs Hodge, who has developed a career in water management since his retirement from professional rowing in 2017.
“It’s crept in through public and private ownership, overseen by politicians of both parties, and has enhanced the bottom line for a lot of companies. I’m glad that British Rowing and the Boat Race have brought in some guidelines to deal with what we’ve known for a long time.”
As Bowden recalled, the Thames was far from palatable even in the 1970s, when he rowed there as a boy. “The river is full of fish,” he said. “There are dolphins. You even get the odd whale. But clearly there is a health risk there and there are lots of very simple mitigations that rowers learn very early on in the sport that greatly reduces the risk.
“Once in a while someone will pick up a stomach bug, but they tend to bounce back within 24 or 48 hours. It’s something that is really important. We clearly don’t want people to get ill.”
So what will happen to the victorious coxes in Saturday’s races, which start at 2.46pm for the women and 3.46pm for the men?
![Oxford captain Harry Glenister in front of the Thames](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/rowing/2024/03/27/TELEMMGLPICT000371968618_17115771475530_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqUf_h_ORUH6KGqNZoB2fS_wG5W-FYkLKtPy8Y7gT0uSI.jpeg?imwidth=350)
“We’ve had races where we’ve thrown the cox in,” said the former Great Britain rower Harry Glenister, who will compete for Oxford this year. “It’s the tradition. But if there’s a health and safety problem I don’t think we’ll be throwing him in because we don’t want to risk that.
“It’s just too much of a risk. We support whatever the Boat Race is saying about the conditions in the water. We just hope we’ll win and then we’ll decide.”
“It’s a consensual thing.,” said Cambridge University Boat Club men’s team president Seb Benzecry. “You don’t throw your cox in if your cox doesn’t consent. We haven’t thought about the celebrations at all. It’s a detriment to our process.
“But people get caught up in the moment. We threw our cox in last year, and in 2021, we all jumped in. But that was at Ely, so it was our own home water.”
According to Bowden, who has coached Oxford since 1997: “We don’t want to spend hours discussing what we might do if we win. But we have to think about it as coaches and I think we can ask the right questions at the right time.
“People swim and do a lot of water sports in the river. And throwing the cox in the water for about 10 seconds carries some very small risk, I guess. The cox obviously has a say in that. We don’t want to throw somebody in if they don’t want to be. That’s how things are these days.”