Oxford brightens dark London skies with emphatic Boat Race win

Oxford were handed an emphatic win in the 160th University Boat Race which was contested in murky drizzle in west London on Sunday after a light blues' mistake just after five minutes into the race.

Cambridge could not recover from a clash of oars that nearly tipped the crewmember in their number two seat, the American Luke Juckett, into the Thames. That forced them to miss three or four strokes and allowed the Oxford crew first to open up, then stretch out an unassailable lead.

Oxford, favourites and defending champions, went into the race 5kg a man lighter and giving their rivals a height advantage of 7cm a man.

History favours the heavier crew but the Oxford boat was packed with stars. They included the Kiwi Storm Uru, at only 11st 6lbs, a world champion and Olympic medallist in lightweight double sculls, and Malcolm Howard, at 17st 1lb, who was a member of an eight that won gold in the Beijing Olympics and silver at London 2012.

The dark blues started the The BNY Mellon Boat Race with what was still their biggest, but also most successful and experienced eight, and they pressed home that edge in experience. They delivered an emphatic victory, keeping control of the race after the clash of oars, and with Constantine Louloudis, in the stroke seat, securing his hat-trick of boat race wins.

Afterwards, umpire Richard Phelps said: "The contact [between the boats] was slight but the impact was great. Cambridge's appeal was that they were correcting themselves when the foul occurred and Oxford were not on the correct station [course] but from my perspective Oxford were on the proper station."

Steve Trapmore, the Cambridge coach, said there was a clash of oars and Cambridge caught a crab on what turned out to be a tough day. "No one would have wanted to win in that way," he added.

Oxford had been forced by the winter floods to move their training away from Wallingford further downriver on the Thames to Caversham and Dorney.

Both crews were relatively young, Oxford's average age being 26 and Cambridge's 24. The light blues included 20-year-old Ivo Dawkins, in the number three seat, who is the son of Will Dawkins, a former FT foreign editor. Dawkins Snr was in the Cambridge crew that sank in 1978 after shipping water on the approach to Barnes bridge.

Oxford's winning margin, by more than 11 lengths, was the longest since the 1978 sinking. It was their fifth victory in seven years with Cambridge still leading the series overall by 82 victories to 77, with a dead heat in 1877.

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