Clare Harvey will take charge of the Women’s Boat Race and Ciarán Hayes the Men’s Boat Race on 4 April 2026.

Gaining selection for The Boat Race is an honour only afforded to those at the very top of their game. This applies to umpires just as much as to the competing athletes.

We sat down with Clare and Ciarán to talk about their rowing and umpiring backgrounds, and their thoughts ahead of this year’s race.

Clare Harvey – Women’s Boat Race Umpire 2026

Clare learned to row at St John’s College, Cambridge where she studied Natural Sciences and was in the spare pair for the Women’s Boat Race in 2006.

Following a successful post-university rowing career at Thames Rowing Club, she qualified as a British Rowing umpire as an enjoyable way to stay involved in the sport. She is now a World Rowing umpire too. “Rowing has given me so much and it’s nice to be able to give something back,” she said. The idea of umpiring The Boat Race wasn’t initially on her radar at all but developed after seeing the Cambridge women training out of Thames.

Clare 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 again in 2025. Despite this track record, she admits that she was surprised when she received the email notifying her that she’d been selected to umpire this year’s Women’s Boat Race.

“It’s really exciting to have this opportunity as it’s essentially one of the most visible stages that an umpire can work on, even more so than at international events,” she explained. “It’s much more challenging than courses with buoyed lanes because there are no visible indicators of where the stream is that the coxes are vying for, so you go in expecting to do a lot more work and issue a lot more warnings. And the large audience, which is unusual for rowing, means there’s a lot of extra pressure on you to make the right decisions. But it’s also unique because you build a relationship with the coxes beforehand through Trial Eights and the fixtures, and speak to them very directly during the race.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Claire’s aim for the 80th Women’s Boat Race is that she will quickly be forgotten. “What we all want is a clean race in which the umpire doesn’t need to have a deciding influence on the outcome.”

All rowing umpires are volunteers; Clare’s day job is as Chief Executive at the Ogden Trust, a charity that promotes the teaching and learning of physics. She received an MBE in 2025 for services to education. 

Ciarán Hayes – Men’s Boat Race Umpire 2026

When Ciarán Hayes drops his flag to start the 171st Men’s Boat Race, he will be the first Irishman to umpire a Boat Race.

His prominent role in this global event may not make headline news on the emerald isle, however. “The Boat Race doesn’t have the same place in the national sporting calendar as it does here, although it’s well known amongst the rowing community,” he said, adding, “Various Irish rowers have competed in The Boat Race, most recently Caoimhe Dempsey, who was in the victorious Cambridge Women’s Blue Boat in 2023.”

Ciarán learned to row as a teenager at Skibbereen Rowing Club and went on to be selected for the two seat of Isis in 2003 as an undergraduate whilst studying Economics and Management at Pembroke College. Looking back on the experience, he reflected, “Coming from a small club – albeit one with a lot of success – to being in Oxford where rowing is such a huge part of university and college life took some getting used to. Blazers, boat club dinners and bumps racing were also a bit of a culture shock! But ultimately my rowing for OUBC pushed me to do things I didn’t know I could do, to have experiences I could have only dreamed of, and ultimately to share those with people who have become lifelong friends.”

Like Clare, he’s a British Rowing and World Rowing umpire. He umpired the Men’s Lightweight Boat Race in 2024 and the Women’s Reserve Race (Osiris vs Blondie) in 2025, before getting the nod for this year’s Men’s Boat Race.

“It’s both a huge privilege and a huge responsibility,” he said. “I’ll be following in the footsteps of some very big names in the sport, and it’s not something I ever imagined when I was rowing as a junior in Skibbereen. It’s a big, high-profile role where there’s probably more focus on the umpire than in most other races. What matters to me is that both crews get the chance to give the best account of themselves and show the fruits of their training, skill, and commitment in a fair and safe race.”

Outside rowing, Ciarán is a civil servant and was recently appointed Director of the Wales Office/Swyddfa Cymru in the UK Government.