Cambridge recorded a dominant double success at the Boat Race in the women’s and the men’s races that contained plenty of drama but ultimately comfortable margins of victory.
The buildup had focused on the scandal surrounding high levels of E coli bacteria detected in the Thames, but once the racing began, the continued dominance from the light blues became the defining feature.
Cambridge’s women confounded pre-race expectations, as well as a commanding start by Oxford, to win their seventh straight race in controversial fashion.
Oxford, the favourites, flew into half a length’s lead by the time the boats passed Craven Cottage, and it was a full length when they approached the sweeping Surrey bend on a bright, fresh spring day in south-west London.
Given the superior experience of the Oxford women’s crew, it looked like the game was up. But Cambridge increasingly found their rhythm and under the calm guidance of their cox, Hannah Murphy, began to eat into their rivals’ lead and eventually move ahead.
The decisive moment in a thrilling contest came at the Chiswick Steps, when there was contact between the boats with Cambridge leading by nearly a full length.
After the finish line the Oxford cox, Joe Gellett, protested to the umpire, Richard Phelps, that Cambridge had steered into their water. The picture was clouded by the fact Cambridge had been warned for steering across before the boats came together, but Oxford also clearly changed their line in an apparent attempt to “bump” their rivals.
“You warned them they were in our water. I was still in my station,” Gellett said of the incident, after which Cambridge had forged an unassailable lead, winning in a time of 21min 17sec. Oxford came in 17sec behind.
“My view is that you were out of your water when you had contact,” said the umpire. “My view is you deliberately steered towards their station to make that contact.”
After a long debate from boats floating in the shadow of Chiswick Bridge, the umpire finally rejected Gellett’s complaint, and raised his white flag to confirm Cambridge as winners. “We’ve done it again!” was the cry from the Cambridge boat.
“I think just crossing the line we were all just super proud,” Murphy told the BBC. “I think we knew that was the fastest race we could put down. It’s pure pride on our part.”
Gemma King said: “We knew our strongest feature was our base pace,. We were really confident in it. We knew that was our power that could bring us back through. I’m really proud of us.”