Oxford and Cambridge: King sisters to race together at the 2025 British Rowing Club Championships
Bronze medallists at last year’s Championships, Gemma and Catherine will once again be putting their Boat Race rivalry to one side this weekend
Credit: AllMarkOne
Before they were rivals, Gemma and Catherine spent a decade racing in the same squads at school and university, but for the last few years, they’ve been on opposite sides of one of the oldest sporting battles in the world – the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race. In 2025, Gemma rowed in the two seat in the victorious (light) Blue boat, whilst Catherine raced in the six seat in Osiris.
“We just really enjoy rowing together!” Gemma said, laughing. “It’s something we don’t really get to do at all throughout the season. Rowing together gives us the chance to see each other – living in Oxford and Cambridge, we don’t actually really see each other that often. It’s nice to go in small boats in the summer because we spend the whole year pretty much in eights.”
“As sisters, we could be very honest with each other and just do what we could to try and make the boat go faster.”
Catherine and Gemma have been rowing in the same squad (and mostly the same boat!) since they learnt to row at Lady Eleanor Holles School in 2012. They trained together until they were eighteen, when they both went to study and row at Cambridge. After graduating from their first degrees, Catherine left the Ely for Wallingford to continue her studies at Oxford, whilst Gemma remained a light blue.
“It’s only been more recently that we haven’t been on the same team.”
“In the summer we’d often get into a pair and train together – we always found it worked very well. As sisters, we could be very honest with each other and just do what we could to try and make the boat go faster. We understand and trust each other.”
“Sadly now we’re both bow-siders, so the pair is not really something we can do if we want to go straight,” Gemma said.
Last year, Gemma and Catherine raced in one of the most exciting finals at the British Rowing Club Championships, where a late charge from Bath University Boat Club saw them overhaul the mixed blue boat and Hartpury College to take gold. Catherine and Gemma, with only a few sessions back together in a double, were delighted with their bronze.
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The sisters will be racing the same event this year. “We’ll see what we can do against all the other crews who have been training and sculling all year. It’s exciting to be racing them!”
The Club Championships has given the sisters motivation to continue their training into the summer. “Most people in Oxford and Cambridge have gone home for the summer,” Catherine said. “Having a race a little bit later on is something to aim for, to train for.
“We rivals most of the season, and obviously mostly, I just want to beat her, but we’ve always been super competitive in everything we’ve done, whether that be against each other or together. So I know that she’ll be giving it a hundred percent in the race. I trust her to be doing that.”
Gemma, as the incoming president of Cambridge University Boat Club, has multiple reasons to be excited about the weekend. “Our race is on Sunday, but I’ll be up Saturday because our development squad is racing again this year. The last couple of weeks have been great, because they’ve been training early, so I’ve not just been on the river by myself!
“I’ve been around for all the sessions they’ve done that I can be. I’ve helped a lot with driving the mini buses around. I’ll be there on Friday when we load the trailer up. Hopefully a lot of them will trial next year – that’s the future of Cambridge! We’ve often had people come through our development programme from college rowing who’ve gone on to make boats the following year or the year after. I think supporting them, being there to answer questions and showing them what trialing can be like, I think is really useful.”
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The Club Championships offers the Cambridge development squad the chance to pit themselves against other crews in a multi-lane format. “A lot of them have only ever raced on the Cam, which is a tiny river. Very rarely side by side. So for them just going to Nottingham, having six boats side-by-side, it’s all completely new. Even attaching to the stake boat. It’s a big deal and really exciting.”
“The quality of women’s rowing is amazing now. Just over the last couple years it’s been such a step on”
Will the King sisters race against each other in The Boat Race again next year?
Catherine “Obviously the season is very Boat Race focused. It’s the big thing. We want to get the fastest possible boats we have – Blues, Osiris and Lightweights. I also think it’s exciting that we’ve been doing more summer racing. We had a good Henley campaign in the Island Challenge Cup this year – we’re trying to do more. We race Cambridge a lot, but it’s brilliant to be able to race other crews, because there are a lot of strong university and club crews out there!”
Gemma is excited to take on her new role next season. “We’ve got loads of people coming in – a big squad to start with. I’ve got quite a different role in the squad next year, I’m excited to see what we can get from everyone whilst just making sure it’s like a really enjoyable experience. Like Oxford, we’ve also been doing quite a lot of summer racing, and raced at Henley.
“Like we’ve said before, the quality of women’s rowing is amazing now. Just over the last couple years it’s been such a step on. We want to see how fast we can go, seeing what we can do against other crews across the country.”
Catherine and Gemma will be racing in the Women’s Championship Double Sculls on Sunday at the British Rowing Club Championships – tune in to Champs Live to watch every race live!
