Cambridge complete Boat Race clean sweep as men's team claim emphatic victory

Independent

13-04-2025

Cambridge completed a clean sweep on the Thames with victories in the men's, women's and both reserve Boat Races.
It was expected to be a tight battle in the 170th men's edition, but instead the light blue boat built up an early lead and never looked back, shocking an Oxford boat stacked with several Olympians.
Cambridge made it eight straight wins in the 79th women's competition, also the 10th anniversary of the men's and women's races taking place on the traditional 6.8-kilometre Championship Course.
It was an event once again overshadowed by controversy in the build-up after the enforcement of rules preventing PGCE students taking part meant three Cambridge rowers were unable to participate.
Like in 2024, there were also worries about water quality after concerning levels of the E. coli bacteria were found along the course in the weeks leading up to the event.
Both Oxford's men and women won their coin tosses and elected to start at the Surrey station, and the sunny conditions for the latter had turned overcast by the time the men began just under 10 minutes after its scheduled 14:21 start to clear debris from the course.
It was neck-and-neck at the start and Cambridge were the subjects of a few early warnings from umpire Sarah Winckless, who became the first woman to umpire the men's race on the Championship Course after also overseeing it when it moved to the Great River Ouse in 2021.
But Cambridge pulled out to a lead of just under two seconds, and extended their advantage as they crossed under the Hammersmith Bridge just over four seconds ahead.
They continued to look loose and in control as they built up a considerable advantage of more than 12 seconds at the Barnes Bridge before pulling well clear to claim a comfortable win.
The women's race was umpired by Sir Matthew Pinsent, who issued his first warning to Oxford less than a minute in and had a huge early decision to make after the oars clashed within the first two minutes.
It was a move initiated by Oxford cox Daniel Orton, and for a brief moment it looked like Pinsent was contemplating disqualifying the dark blue boat.
Instead the four-time Olympic champion elected for a restart, handing Cambridge – who had been out in front – a compensatory advantage a one-third of a length advantage.
The light blue boat began to pull ahead under the Hammersmith Bridge, maintaining a significant gap by the halfway point and crossed the Chiswick Steps with an advantage of just over six seconds, extended to 7.72 seconds by the time they crossed the finish.
Pinsent told the BBC: 'The clash was heavy enough that it was going to stop the race. There are a range of options you've got at that moment. You could DQ someone straight away, you can do a restart.
'(Disqualification) pops into your mind, but you also can allow after a restart to see whether it affected the outcome of the race, and obviously in my opinion it did not affect the outcome of that race, and that's what is going on in my head now.'