07 Dec 2011
Cambridge Prepares to Challenge Oxford in 149th Boat Race
The Cambridge crew practices for sunday’s race – the 149th edition of The Boat Race.
© Andrew Redington/Getty Images
One year on from Oxford’s close victory in the world famous Oxford-Cambridge boat race, the two universities are getting ready to face each other again in the 149th edition of The Boat Race which will be held on the Thames on Sunday 6 April at 17.30 CET.
This traditional race, which has been won 70 times by Oxford and 77 times by Cambridge (with one dead heat in 1877), has been raced in its current form since 1845 on a 6.8 km S-shaped stretch of the Thames between Putney and Mortlake in London, Great Britain.
Both teams have a ?blue? crew racing in the main race and a reserves crew (Isis and Goldie respectively for Oxford and Cambridge). Traditionally, the Oxford crew races in dark blue, and the Cambridge crew in light blue.
Dark Blue Oxford, the most British of the two challengers this year, has an experienced line-up, with seven of their crew having taken part in previous editions either in the main race or with the spares. President and stroke Matt Smith (3 boat races) heads a boat containing Robin Bourne-Taylor (2002 GBR national team men’s eight crew member), Basil Dixon, John Adams, Henry Morris, David Livingston and cox Acer Nethercott as well as their two overseas competitors Scott Frandsen from Canada and Australian Sam McLennan.
The Light Blue boat ? Cambridge – sees an even more cosmopolitan mix: President Tim Wooge, former member of the German national junior and senior teams will be striving to bring his crew ? Hugo Mallinson (USA), Jim Omartian (USA), Matthias Kleinz (GER), Kris Coventry (AUS), Wayne Pommen (CAN) and locals Alex McGarel-Groves, Tom James and James Livingston to their school’s 78th victory.
The race which dates all the way back to 1829 has become one of the most popular events on the British sporting calendar. Each year, hundreds of thousands of spectators line the banks of the River Thames to support the two crews.
Interestingly, the 2003 race will be down in history for having two brothers ? David (Oxford) and James (Cambridge) Livingston – opposing each other in rival boats for the first time since 1900. Sunday’s racing will tell if ?family rivalry? (as described by Mike Rosewell) fuels even fiercer racing between the challenging contenders than the usual tough fight for victory. This might be the key to beating the current record of 16 min 19 sec. held by Cambridge since 1998.
The Boat Race can be followed live in the UK on BBC, and will be boadcast on the pan European channel Eurosport. For more information, visit the official website on www.theboatrace.org.