Former St John’s rower to umpire Women’s Boat Race 2026
Clare Harvey (2003) has spoken of her excitement at being selected to be the Women’s Boat Race Umpire for 2026.
“It’s massively exciting,” she says. “This really is the pinnacle of umpiring. It’s obviously one of the most well known races, and one of the most watched races. It’s also one of the more challenging to umpire, because of the nature of side-by-side racing and the coxes fighting for the stream.”
Clare learned to row at St John’s College, where she studied Natural Sciences, and went on to be in the spare pair for the Women’s Boat Race in 2006. She had a successful post-university rowing career at Thames Rowing Club. She then qualified as a British Rowing umpire and is a World Rowing umpire, too.
She has also umpired the Men’s Lightweight Boat Race in 2021 at Ely, the Men’s Reserve Race (Isis v Goldie) in 2023, and the Men’s Lightweights in 2025. Clare says she was “surprised and delighted” to be selected to umpire this year’s Women’s Boat Race.
“I’ve been on the Boat Race umpire panel since 2017 and so there’s a whole panel of us who support the races. But this is my first time getting to umpire the Blue boats, which is very exciting.
“Lots of things make the race special: there’s the history of it, and you’re very aware of what it means to all of the athletes and coaches involved. You also get to build a relationship with the crews in a way you don’t in a lot of other umpiring, because we do fixtures with them across the season and you do brief them directly, so that makes it a different experience. And the nature of The Tideway means it is always full of surprises.
“It’s certainly one of my favourite races to watch, too. And I think for someone who doesn’t know the sport very well, it’s more exciting to watch compared with some other types of racing where it isn’t as easy to see what is going on. Although I’m hoping there won’t be too much excitement! I’d like it to go off without a hitch.”
Clare explains she had not rowed before coming to St John’s. “I learned to row in my first term,” she says. “I think I’d always quite fancied the idea of it but didn’t have the opportunity before. When I came up at Freshers’ Fair, I signed up for Lady Margaret novices. I did Second Boat for Lents and Mays that first year, not with great success, I should add. I’ve probably been bumped more than I bumped over the years. I really enjoyed rowing. It was a sport that seemed to work for me. I enjoyed being part of the crew, with all of us working of working together. So, I signed up for the University Development Squad that summer, and then I did University trials in my second and third year. I was injured towards the end of my third year, and I was Lady Margaret Women’s Captain in my fourth year.”
After university, Clare continued rowing and coached in New Zealand for a year. “I’ve been at Thames for the bulk of my post-university rowing. Eventually I got injured and couldn’t row anymore and was looking at opportunities to stay in sport and to give back. I’d been rowing for 10 years at that point, and it was a big part of my life. I didn’t want to leave that behind.”
Being a rowing umpire is a voluntary role. Clare works as Chief Executive at the Ogden Trust, a charity that promotes the teaching and learning of physics. She was awarded an MBE in 2025 for services to education.
“I have followed my degree, and our charity does a lot of work to support quality physics education for all young people, ages 4 to 18,” says Clare. “But alongside that the rowing part of my time at university has given me everything. It’s where a lot of my friends are from. It’s how I spend my spare time. And now I’ve been given this opportunity to umpire the Women’s Boat Race, which I never could have imagined at the start.”