Eight men have avoided arrest after narrowly missing a man swimming in the Thames.
In order to escape persecution the men have aligned themselves to the Boat Race.
The police officer first on the scene gave us his views on the incident; ‘in my twenty years on the force I don’t remember anything like this happening. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sharing the water ways but this seems like a blatant liberty’.
Sergeant Thomas went on to say ‘it’s just unheard of. The rules appear to have been completely ignored by this bunch of hooray Henry’s, it’s a disgrace!’
Further to this, more difficulties ensued when one of the oars on the ‘Oxford’ boat nearly decapitated the swimmer.
One of the boaters was asked about the incident, to which he responded ‘If we had realised our event clashed with the Annual General Public’s Swimming day we would have left the boats at home and just come down to egg him on’.
The crew member at the head of the boat said ‘I feel quite ashamed and in all honesty a bit of a Cox!’
Shortly after exiting the water, the swimmer, who can’t be named, for the simple reason we never asked for it and he didn’t tell us, provided us with his thoughts on the day:
‘This event is only held once a year and representing the general public on this auspicious occasion made me very proud; for me, swimming has only ever been a pastime that I can enjoy at my local pool, but when you’re offered the chance to take it to a higher level I jumped at it. It does annoy me a little that these guys didn’t check beforehand to make sure the Thames was available for their event to take place. I had to laugh though, that guy breaking his oar like that, just shows what a thick head I must have!’ ‘At least I got a certificate out of it, the first since school’.
The AGPS have confirmed they will change their rules next year. A spokesman said ‘we encourage all forms of water sports here and we see no reason why these two events shouldn’t run in tandem. We can’t really exclude the sport of ‘rowing up stream in order to collect a cup’, that would just be elitist!’
Quick links: NewsBiscuit Home • Chat Room • Writers' Room • Top Ten
Boat Race disrupts annual swimming event
(1 post) (1 voice)
Current rating::
-
Posted 1 year ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.