ANNIE SHARP is only half-joking when she predicts she will be the only rower as excited about starting the Boat Race in close proximity to the Thames’ new “super sewer” as she is about the chance to snap a six-year winless stretch for Oxford’s women.

The 24-year-old’s enthusiasm for the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a £4.5 billion, 15.5-mile-long sewage structure which saw its final piece lifted into place this week, makes more sense when you learn that Sharp is an MSc water science, policy & management student at St Antony’s College.

Oxford last won the women’s Boat Race in 2016, the same year work began on the sewer, but might not be able to partake in the traditional celebratory dip should they win the 78th women’s edition tomorrow after high levels of E coli were found along the Championship Course.