13-04-2025
Cambridge complete Boat Race clean sweep
It was a clean sweep for the Cambridge light blues, who secured wins in the women's and reserve races, while the men claimed the trophy for a third-straight year by a margin of five-and-a-half lengths. The women cruised to an eighth-straight victory in the 79th edition of the race, which began with some drama. The crews clashed oars within the first two minutes and umpire Sir Matthew Pinsent elected to restart rather than disqualify who he deemed to be the Oxford instigators. 'We respect our competition a lot,' said Claire Collins talking about the clash, 'we want to be able to just go down the full track so I'm glad we were able to restart and get going.' Asked about whether Cambridge's winning streak adds pressure to the athletes, Cambridge six seat James Robson, a Team GB reserve athlete at last summer's Paris Olympics, told the PA news agency: 'For me it was an awesome opportunity to come to a programme that has such a winning culture.' Oxford sent out a crew comprised of several Olympians including men's president Tom Mackintosh, who won gold with New Zealand's eight at Tokyo 2020. He said: 'Unfortunately, it just didn't go our way today, but I don't feel like we've lost because I'm still proud of the work that all the Oxford men and women have done. 'That's the beauty of an event like this and the beauty of sport. Some days it doesn't go your way, but the race won't define you and it won't define Oxford.'
