Heavier Oxford crew win boat race

The oldest university match in the world, the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, was this year won by Oxford, who gradually asserted their superiority over the 4 1/4 mile (6.8 km) course on the London Thames to notch up their seventh win in the last ten years.

The twelve foreign athletes among the two crews confirmed the international interest which has been a key feature of the race ever since the Australian W. Robertson competed in the winning crew in 1861. This year's Oxford line-up featured the Pole, Michal Plotkowiak, at bow with the giant former U23 world champion sculler Sjoerd Hamburger of the Netherlands in the five seat and the Croatian Olympian Ante Kusurin at stroke. Alex Hearne and Ben Harrison of the USA brought the usual transatlantic flavour while former world champion and Olympic silver medallist George Bridgwater became the first New Zealander to take part in the race for more than a decade. In charge of the Oxford crew was their president, Colin Smith, who stroked Great Britain’s men's eight to an Olympic silver medal seven months ago in Beijing.

Cambridge boated a less cosmopolitan crew which included three Americans, a Canadian and one Australian, the former U23 world medallist Hardy Cubasch. But this year's focus was as much on the coach as the crew – Chris Nilsson was facing his first year in charge after leading the New Zealand men's four to the world title in 2007.

A light westerly breeze failed to produce any chop on the surface of the Thames – a marked contrast to earlier in the week when both crews had to contend with stormy waves in the strong head wind while training.

Cambridge won the toss and chose the Surrey station on the south side of the river, which gave them the advantage of the huge left-hand bend which would unfold halfway down the course. But as the umpire's flag dropped and the crews left the stake boats on the fast-moving flood tide there was nothing to choose between them, with Cambridge going off at 43 against Oxford at 42.

The first right-hand bend in their favour gave Oxford a slight advantage but they were warned for their steering by umpire Boris Rankov and reached the first split timing point after one mile just 0.5 sec ahead.

Now it was Cambridge's turn to seize the initiative – still overrating the opposition at 36 strokes a minute to Oxford's 35 they edged back into the lead by less than a canvas, and reached the second timing marker at Hammersmith Bridge with their bow ball in front. As the crews approached the halfway mark the boats moved perilously close and there was a brief clash of blades. As they separated Oxford determined to regain the upper hand and, rowing around the outside of the bend, went for the killer blow, topping the Cambridge rate for the first time in the race.

By Chiswick Steps, the third timing point, they were a third of a length up and before long they had clear water and were moving away. As the crews shot Barnes Bridge, with less than 1000m remaining, Oxford once again had the bend in their favour, and crossed the line in exactly 17mins to win by three and a half lengths.

"I always got the sense that this crew was strong enough to row around the outside of the bend" said Colin Smith afterwards. "This crew was immensely powerful and right now must be regarded as one of the fastest eights in the world."

The winning time was one of the fastest on record but still 41 seconds slower than the record established in 1998. And despite their recent history it is still Cambridge who lead the 155-race series with 79 wins to Oxford's 75, with one dead heat.

Next year’s Boat Race will be on Saturday 3 April, 2010.

For more information go to www.theboatrace.org.

Copy thanks to Robert Treharne Jones