The 155th Boat Race took place on 29 March 2009. Oxford's crew was the heaviest in the event's history and which featured five Olympic rowers, including silver medallist Colin Smith and bronze medallist George Bridgewater. Cambridge took an early lead, only to be caught and overtaken by Oxford, who won the race by lengths.

In the reserve race, Cambridge's Goldie defeated Oxford's Isis, while Oxford won the Women's Boat Race.

Background The Boat Race is an annual competition between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. First held in 1829, the competition is a race along The Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London. The rivalry is a major point of honour between the two universities and followed throughout the United Kingdom and worldwide. Oxford went into the race as reigning champions, having won the 2008 race by six lengths, while Cambridge led overall with 79 victories to Oxford's 74 (excluding the "dead heat" of 1877). The race was sponsored by Xchanging for the fifth consecutive year.

The first Women's Boat Race took place in 1927, but did not become an annual fixture until the 1960s. Up until 2014, the contest was conducted as part of the Henley Boat Races, but as of the 2015 race, it is held on the River Thames, on the same day as the men's main and reserve races. The reserve race, contested between Oxford's Isis boat and Cambridge's Goldie boat has been held since 1965. It usually takes place on the Tideway, prior to the main Boat Race.

Crews

The Oxford crew (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues") weighed an average of per rower more than the Cambridge crew (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues"), making them the heaviest in Boat Race history. Oxford fielded five rowers who had featured at the 2008 Summer Olympics: Colin Smith won silver for Great Britain, while Ante Kušurin rowed for Croatia, New Zealander George Bridgewater won a bronze in the coxless pair, Sjoerd Hamburger rowed for The Netherlands, and Tom Solesbury for Great Britain. Cambridge's crew contained five returning Blues to Oxford's three. Seat Oxford Cambridge Name College Nationality Age Name College Nationality Age Bow Michal Plotkowiak Brasenose Polish 27 Rob WeitemeyerSt Edmund's Canadian 26 2 Colin Smith (P) St Catherine's British 24 Henry Pelly (P) St Edmund's British 25 3 Alexander Hearne Trinity American 25 Deaglan McEachernHughes Hall American 25 4 Benjamin Harrison Christ ChurchAmerican 23 Peter MarslandPeterhouse British 24 5 Sjoerd HamburgerSt Cross Dutch 26 Ryan Monaghan St Edmund's American 24 6 Tom SolesburyUniversity British 28 Hardy Cubasch St Edmund's Australian 28 7 George BridgewaterOriel New Zealander 26 Tom Ransley Hughes Hall British 23 Stroke Ante Kušurin KelloggCroatian 25 Silas Stafford Gonville American 22 Cox Colin Groshong St Catherine's American 24 Rebecca Dowbiggin Emmanuel British 25 Source:(P) – boat club president

Race

Cambridge won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station. Cambridge's cox Dowbiggin raised her hand to indicate that she was not ready to start just as Umpire Boris Rankov started the race. This allowed Oxford the initiative and they took an early lead. Cambridge slowly edged their way back into contention, and held a half-a-length lead at the two-mile mark. At St Paul's School, Cambridge were two-thirds of a length ahead before a series of oar clashes and umpire warnings forced the boats apart. A larger clash, between Cambridge's Monaghan and Oxford's Smith, took place by Chiswick Eyot before Oxford made the better recovery and quickly pushed out to secure a clear-water lead. Cambridge failed to threaten, and Oxford won by lengths.

In the reserve race, Isis defeated Goldie by four lengths, completing the race in a time of 17 minutes 24 seconds, for their second consecutive win. Oxford won the Women's Boat Race by lengths, hosted at Henley on 22 March 2014.

Reaction Oxford's boat club president Colin Smith said "it's a great, great feeling". He continued: "The difference between the two crews today was our power, aggression and stickability". Cambridge's Australian international Cubasch said "it's really devastating. Sometimes you'd be happy with a silver but here it's dead last." His coach, Chris Nilsson, admitted "at the end of the day, the stronger crew with the more power came through". Oxford coach Sean Bowden said "We just said 'get to halfway, and head for home’, and they did a really good job".

References

External links

Official website