Olympic gold medallist is fourth Cambridge rower banned from Boat Race | Other | Sport

An ongoing row over criteria eligibility has meant that Olympic gold medallist Tom Ford has become the fourth rower to be barred from competing for Cambridge at this year’s Boat Race. Ford recently began an MBA at the University of Cambridge.

But he enrolled for his undergraduate degree at Newcastle University in 2011. This means he came into conflict with a rule introduced after double Olympic gold winner James Cracknell came out of retirement to participate in the race between Oxford and Cambridge in 2019. That year’s event saw Cracknell become the oldest competitor and winner of the esteemed race. The fallout from Cracknell’s victory with Cambridges saw rowing clubs from both universities agree on a new ruling which ensured that athletes cannot not take part in the race if they started an undergraduate course more than 12 years earlier.

Ford may have clinched gold for Team GB in the men’s eight at the 2024 Paris Olympics but he will not be seated in the boat this year, despite being part of the preparation races. The 32-year-old assisted the ‘provisional Blue Boat’, which is Cambridge’s Boat Race crew, to victory against the Netherlands in two races ahead of next month’s event.

However, this is only the latest part of the furore after three post-graduate teacher training students, also rowing for Cambridge, were seen as ineligible less than a month before the two universities compete. Matt Heywood, a former under-23 world champion, Molly Foxell and Kate Cowley have all been disqualified from competing in the men’s and women’s races on the River Thames in April.

Following an Oxford objection, an independent interpretation panel stated that the three Cambridge rowers were PGCE students and not studying for degrees and so were ruled out. A postgraduate certificate of education is listed as an advanced but non-degree vocational qualification for those moving into the teaching industry.

Olympic gold medallist Imogen Grant, who rows for Cambridge, told the BBC: “PGCE students were racing before – it’s written down. It’s the interpretation which has changed. The fact that it is so close to the Boat Race is very unfair.”

Elaborating on their call, The Boat Race Company said in a statement: “In the case of Tom Ford OLY, he matriculated in 2011 and is therefore ineligible to enact the rules, according to the rules agreed jointly by the two clubs.

“As an Olympic gold medallist, Tom brings significant experience and learnings to the Cambridge squad. It is of course unfortunate that he is not eligible to race according to the rules jointly agreed by the two clubs, but this was known to both Tom and CUBC at the time of his admission to the university last summer.”

Cambridge have dominated the famed event in recent years, winning seven consecutive women’s titles and five of the past six men’s. The race will get underway on April 13.