Cambridge Continue Boat Race Dominance

It was an eighth consecutive win for the Cambridge women followed immediately by a third consecutive win for their men’s crew at this year’s Boat Race in London yesterday.

On a day that also saw both of Cambridges reserve boats overcome their rivals from Oxford, Cambridge once again showed their strength over the 6.8km course between Putney and Chiswick on London’s River Thames. Both of Cambridge’s lightweight eights had also won their respective races on the previous day.

There was drama off the start of the Women’s Boat Race when, after Cambridge took the early lead, Oxford appeared to steer into them causing Cambridge’s Sophia Hahn to momentarily lose her blade. The clash forced Race umpire Sir Matthew Pinsent to raise his red flag to stop the race and it was quickly restarted with Cambridge being given the advantage. The course was in Cambridge’s favour in the early stages and allowed them to open up more of a lead. Even when the advantage swapped to the other station, Oxford were unable to capitalise on the long bend around Hammersmith with Cambridge continuing to appear dominant. The Oxford crew, stroked by Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist from the British women’s eight, continued to fight all of the way to the line, but Australian Samantha Morton stroked the Cambridge crew to victory, crossing the line two and a half lengths clear of Oxford, in a time of 19:25. Speaking after the race, Morton said:

“You prepare for a clash, but it’s never really something you think is going to happen. When it happened, I was honestly shellshocked. I wouldn’t have known what to do if it hadn’t have been for Tash [Morrice, 7 seat] and Jack [Nicholas, cox] yelling at me!”

The men’s race was scheduled to start an hour later but there was a delay to the start as some debris was identified on the course. Once race umpire Sarah Winckless was content that the course was clear, the race got underway and was very close in the early stages with Winckless being kept very busy with her white flag. As in the women’s race, Oxford had won the coin toss and chosen the “Surrey” (south) station – which, once again, gave Cambridge the first advantage of the bends in the river. By the time the race approached Hammersmith Bridge, Cambridge had established a clear-water advantage and, similar to the women’s race, even when the bends in the course swung to advantage Oxford, it looked like there was potentially too much work to be done. Althought he race had been expected to be closer, Cambridge continued to move away for the rest of the race. There was nothing Oxford could do as Cambridge rowed to a victory of five and a half lengths, clocking 16:56.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion for New Zealand in the men’s eight Tom Mackintosh was President for Oxford this year and remained relatively upbeat after the race;

“Today didn’t go our way but to be honest, I don’t really feel like we’ve lost. I’m still really proud of all of the effort that the men and women have put into this club.” I’ll commend Cambridge on their effort. They outdid us today, and full credit to them.”

We look forward to seeing many of this year’s Boat Race competitors representing their nations at World Rowing competitions later this year.

Photos: Benedict Tufnell/Row360