Cambridge’s double first as university boat races pull further towards parity
Woman coxes Oxford men’s eight while man steers Cambridge women’s boat to victory
By Simon Greaves
The university boat race, first held 194 years ago, made a little more history with Cambridge winning both races on the Thames Tideway in overcast and sometimes rough weather on Sunday, a day when a woman coxed the Oxford eight and the coxswain in charge of Cambridge’s women was a man.
James Trotman, a first-year economics undergraduate at Sidney Sussex College, steered the Cambridge women’s boat in their 77th challenge while Anna O’Hanlon, a masters student in clinical embryology at Somerville College, coxed the Oxford men in what was their 168th clash.
This was not the first time a woman was in charge of the men’s boat and a man in charge of the women’s in the same year. It happened 12 months after Sue Brown became the first woman to cox in the race in 1981. The following year, Brown was again in the Oxford boat, while Philip Edwards was coxswain for the Oxford women’s eight, who then raced in Henley. But that did not happen again for another 35 years.
Brothers Jasper and Ollie Parish were in the same Cambridge eight this year. Jasper steered Cambridge’s women to a record-breaking win over Oxford as cox last year and earned the traditional river dunking by crewmates afterwards. On Sunday, as Cambridge crossed the finish line in a tough contest when Oxford were always in contention, Jasper stepped past the stroke seat to hug his brother at number two.
The Cambridge men held off a late charge from Oxford on a very choppy Tideway, especially on the exposed bends, to win by just over a length for their fourth victory in the past five races. Earlier, Cambridge’s women took victory by four and a quarter lengths despite a protest from their opponents over potential encroachment. It was a sixth straight win for the women’s team.
Am early bold move from cox Jasper Parish paid off when he steered the men’s crew closer to the shelter of the bank near Fulham Football Club hoping to find calmer water. This gave Cambridge a half-length’s lead which they held on to until the finish, despite a spirited effort from Oxford. Oxford stroke Felix Drinkall, 23, from Hertford College, collapsed at the finish and had to be evacuated from the boat by an RNLI launch to a shoreline ambulance.
This great amateur sporting challenge began when the first Men’s Boat Race was rowed on 10th June 1829 at Henley-on-Thames, Oxford winning this race easily. Their winning boat can be seen in the River & Rowing Museum in Henley.
The Women’s Boat Race was first held in 1927 on the Isis in Oxford but only raced sporadically until the mid-1960s. From 1977 until 2014 The Women’s Boat Race was held at Henley. In 2015 the women’s race moved to the Championship Course, historically establishing parity by taking place over the same distance as the men’s race.
With restrictions on sporting events following the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 race was cancelled and then in 2021 it was held at Ely before returning to the Championship Course in 2022.
On 3 April last year Cambridge retained their title as winners of the Women’s Boat Race for the fifth consecutive year, 2½ lengths ahead of Oxford. Both crews broke the course record set in 2017. Cambridge set a winning record time of 18:23.
Oxford’s men broke Cambridge’s five-year winning streak in the Men’s Boat Race winning by 2¼ lengths in a time of 16:42. This equalled the winning Oxford time in 2005, a record which has not been matched since. Before this weekend, Cambridge led the results tally by 85 to 81 (with one dead heat in 1877).
The Boat Race course, known as The Championship Course, is 4 miles, 374 yards or 6.8 km long. It stretches from Putney to Mortlake on the River Thames. The races are rowed upstream, and is timed to start on the incoming flood tide.
The main sponsor of the event is Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange co-founded by former Olympian rowers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Both brothers rowed at Harvard University for four years while majoring in economics, later competing at the 2007 Pan American Games and 2008 Beijing Olympics. The twins also participated in the 2010 Boat Race while studying business at Oxford.
