Boat Race: First woman picked to umpire men's Oxford-Cambridge rowing fixture

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-50983399

Version 0 of 1.

A woman will umpire the men's Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race for the first time in its 166-year history.

Sarah Winckless, a former student at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, will officiate at the race on the Thames in London on 29 March.

She umpired the women's Boat Race in 2017 and the previous year umpired the reserve men's race.

"To be the first female umpire in charge of the Boat Race is a real honour and responsibility," she said.

Rower Miss Winckless, 46, competed in three Olympic Games and won a bronze medal in Athens in 2004 with doubles partner Elise Laverick.

She was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2015 for services to sport and young people.

"There are 10 rules of the Boat Race so that makes what you need to do sound relatively simple," Miss Winckless said.

"However, in the moment of competing on the course it could be a high-pressure situation."

The rules of the race state the crews must keep to their stations (the Middlesex or Surrey sides of the river) unless they have a lead of "clear water" when, if they wish, they can use the opposite station.

Both crews must also row through the centre arches of two bridges where they often come perilously close to each other.

The umpire's job is to try to ensure neither crew commits a "foul" by warning them to keep to their own racing line.

The Boat Race

Source: The Boat Race website