Oxford Wins 148th Boat Race

Oxford came out victorious of the thrilling race, which took place this weekend on the Thames between Oxford and Cambridge for the 148^th edition of the traditional Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.

The Dark Blues covered the 6.8 kilometre course in 16:54, crossing the finish line a mere 2 seconds ahead of their long standing rivals.

Cambridge won the toss for stations and unexpectedly decided to row on the Middlesex side, leaving Oxford to row on the outside on the last bend.

Cambridge lead the race for most of the way by close to a second at every official timing point, however before Barnes Bridge, German international Sebastian Mayer who was rowing for Cambridge caved in from exhaustion. Oxford took the advantage by rowing hard through the last bend and bringing the Oxford boat to their 70^th win in 148 races.

Both crews had an international line-up: Cambridge included three British national squad members – Tom Stallard, Josh West and Rick Dunn as well as American Sam Brookes, German international Sebastian Mayer and Australian Olympic medallist Stuart Welch.

In the Oxford crew the Americans Dan Perkins and Like McGee held up the challenge with the first ever Dutchman in the boat race – Gerritjan Eggenkamp.

Also this week end, the Thames Sculling Challenge, which saw double Olympic champion Ekaterina Karsten hold up a tough fight against German world lightweight champion Claudia Blasberg. Blasberg caught up with the Belorussian several times during the race, but was finally beaten after the heavyweight gave a push at the Crossing and rowed to victory – eight seconds in the lead.

In the men’s it was a challenging race between previous challenge champions Iztok Cop from Slovenia and Czech rower Vaclav Chalupa. The two alternated taking the lead position, but finally Cop kept his position and rowed to a 15-second lead and victory.

The Thames World Sculling Challenge was raced on the same course as the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race – from Putney to Mortlake.