Oxford and Cambridge pick from international talent

Preparing for the historic Boat Race

The Olympic and international experience that has been selected to make up the crews of this year's Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in Great Britain has turned the event into a fest of some of the top rowers in the world.

The crews, announced earlier this week, went through a rigorous selection process that culminated in Cambridge University racing the Polish men's eight while Oxford University battled it out against a combination crew made up of national team members from the Netherlands and United States. Both Cambridge and Oxford won their respective races.

Announcement of the crews kicks off a month of events that will lead up to the main Boat Race on 27 March 2005, events which includes Cambridge racing the German eight and both teams sizing each other up the scales for the official weigh in a week before the race.

One of the top picks in the Oxford boat is Olympic silver medalist for Canada Barney Williams. Williams moves from racing against Great Britain's four for the last two years to being a British university student and rower. He will be joined by United States national team rowers Jason Flickinger and Chris Liwski as well as fellow American Mike Bloomquist.

Adding further Olympic experience to the Oxford crews is Andrew Triggs Hodge and Robin Bourne-Taylor who both competed for Great Britain in the men's eight at Athens. Also from Great Britain, Joe von Mantzahn and Peter Reed have tasted international racing, von Mantzahn first competing on the British team as a junior in 1996.

Coxswain Acer Nethercott returns to his stationary seat in the boat for another year to again face Cambridge coxswain Peter Rudge.

Rudge, under the guidance of coach Robin Williams, led his Cambridge crew to victory last year and will steer a boat full of German blood. Matthias Kleinz of Germany, as well as German-born American Steffan Buschbacher have both raced for Cambridge before.

Adding to the German influence are Olympians Sebastian Schulte and Bernd Heidicker. Schulte raced in his country's eight at Athens while Heidicker competed in the four. They will be joined by American Luke Walton who competed in the pair at Athens and fellow Olympian Great Britain's Tom James fresh from his country's top eight.

Finishing off the squad is Britain's Henry Adams who raced for his country at the junior and senior level and final team mate, Australian Tom Edwards has competed internationally as a junior and under-23 representative.

For more information go to www.theboatrace.org

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