Oxford crew battles strong winds to win boat race

Bookies’ favourite Oxford battled strong winds today to win the 154th Boat Race.

The heavier and collectively older crew eased to victory over the Light Blues by six lengths.

But the conditions meant it was the slowest winning time since 1947.

It took Oxford 20 minutes 53 seconds to cross the finishing line and the Cambridge crew 21 minutes and 14 seconds.

Ladbrokes estimated the result could force bookies to pay out more than £100,000 with the Dark Blues attracting three times as many bets as Cambridge.

Spokesman Robin Hutchison said: “We avoided doing too much damage by being consistently bottom price on Oxford – but it was a day to be a punter rather than a bookie.”

Oxford has won three out of the last four races and five out of the last seven.

It was Oxford cox Nick Brodie’s last time for victory after his crew was defeated last year.

The race rules say no-one can compete more than four times and he was on the losing side twice as part of Oxford’s reserve crew, Isis, prior to last year’s defeat.

The winning team also included American Michael Wherley, 36, who has plenty of experience – he is a triple world champion and a double Olympian from the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens games – and is now the oldest rower in Boat Race history to win.

Wherley said: “He [Nick] did a great job. He called a great race.

“We knew we could put pressure on them early but it was not going to be won quickly.”

If her team had won, Cambridge’s cox, 24-year-old Rebecca Dowbiggin, would have made Boat Race history as the first Light Blue female cox to win in successive years, matching the achievement of Oxford’s Sue Brown back in 1981 and 82.

MeteoGroup UK forecaster Jeremy Plester said wind speeds during the race from Putney to Mortlake were thought to have been between 26mph and 30mph. He also said the crews would have been battling at the bends as they rowed against just west of southerly winds.

Strong gusts had hampered yesterday’s final training sessions and Cambridge coach Duncan Holland compared the conditions to those that sank the Light Blues in 1978.

It was the second win of the day for Oxford after their second crew, Isis, won against Cambridge’s second team, Goldie, before the main race.

However, Cambridge still lead overall in the history of the race, by 79 to 74.