BOAT RACE organisers are optimistic that the new Thames Tideway Tunnel will help lower the chances of another environmental controversy sullying the event again this year.

The 2024 edition was marred by the discovery of alarming levels of E coli bacteria along the course, resulting in a range of safety measures and a member of the losing Oxford boat revealing he had been ill before the race, famously bemoaning the “poo in the water.”

Battersea Power Station, the Boat Race Company, Oxford University Boat Club and Cambridge University Boat Club have backed London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s London Rivers Pledge, which among its goals aims to make the capital’s rivers swimmable by 2034.