Photo: Flickr
Bloody hell. The annual Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge was conducted under farcical conditions on Saturday, after pollution levels in the River Thames reached highly dangerous levels – and some competitors contracted E.Coli this week.
Oxford Captain Lenny Jenkins was scathing in his assessment of the water quality, as his team were beaten by their esteemed rivals. The state of the water was so bad, Cambridge opted against the tradition throwing their Cox into the river.
Jenkins revealed a few of his team mates were ‘down pretty bad’ with the E.Coli strain, and the skipper admitted that he too was VOMITING earlier in the morning. Clearly agitated by the sewage surrounding their boats, he revealed all to the BBC.
“We have had a few guys go down pretty badly with the E.coli strain. This morning I was throwing up and I really wasn’t sure there was going to be a chance for me to be in the boat, but I ultimately kept that quiet and that’s on my shoulders.”
“I’m not sure if that was the right choice because I really didn’t feel like I had much to give in that. But yeah, ultimately, it would have been a lot nicer if there wasn’t as much poo in the water.” | Lenny Jenkins
Over the last few years, water companies have been dumping sewage with impunity, and very little has been done to prevent such an environmental catastrophe. With no accountability, rivers like The Thames have reached critically polluted levels.
It has also been revealed that sewage was dumped into the river DURING the Boat Race on Saturday, with several sites reportedly flooding the Thames with wastewater. Campaigner Feargal Sharkey was left apoplectic with the whole situation.
