The 155th Boat Race took place on 29 March 2009. Oxford's crew was the heaviest in the event's history and which featured five Olympic rowers, including silver medallist Colin Smith and bronze medallist

George Bridgewater George Spencer Bridgewater (born 18 January 1983) is a former New Zealand rower who competed in the pair at international level with Nathan Twaddle. The pair began representing New Zealand together in 2004 and won bronze medals at the 2008 Su ...

. Cambridge took an early lead, only to be caught and overtaken by Oxford, who won the race by lengths. In the reserve race, Cambridge's Goldie defeated Oxford's Isis, while Oxford won the

Women's Boat Race The Women's Boat Race is an annual rowing race between Cambridge University Women's Boat Club and Oxford University Women's Boat Club. First rowed in 1927, the race has taken place annually since 1964. Since the 2015 race it has been rowed on ...

Background

The Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. There are separate men's ...

is an annual competition between the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. First held in 1829, the competition is a race along

The Championship Course The Championship Course is a stretch of the River Thames between Mortlake and Putney in London, England. It is a well-established course for sport rowing, rowing races, particularly the The Boat Race, Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. The course ...

on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

in southwest London. The rivalry is a major point of honour between the two universities and followed throughout the United Kingdom and worldwide. Oxford went into the race as reigning champions, having won the 2008 race by six lengths, while Cambridge led overall with 79 victories to Oxford's 74 (excluding the "dead heat" of 1877). The race was sponsored by

Xchanging Xchanging is a business process and technology services provider and integrator, owned by DXC Technology, providing business services to the commercial insurance industry. In outsourcing, Xchanging will typically take over a customer's business ...

for the fifth consecutive year. The first

took place in 1927, but did not become an annual fixture until the 1960s. Up until 2014, the contest was conducted as part of the

Henley Boat Races The Henley Boat Races were a series of annual rowing races between various crews representing the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The event included the Lightweight Men's Boat Race from 1975 to 2018, the Women's Boat ...

, but as of the 2015 race, it is held on the River Thames, on the same day as the men's main and reserve races. The reserve race, contested between Oxford's Isis boat and Cambridge's Goldie boat has been held since 1965. It usually takes place on the Tideway, prior to the main Boat Race.

Crews

Cambridge VIII at Stakeboat - 2009 Boat Race

The Oxford crew (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues") weighed an average of per rower more than the Cambridge crew (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues"), making them the heaviest in Boat Race history. Oxford fielded five rowers who had featured at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

: Colin Smith won silver for Great Britain, while

Ante Kušurin Ante Kušurin (born 9 June 1983) is a Croatian rower, who specialized in the double scull event. He is a two-time medalist at the World Junior Rowing Championships and also a member of the Oxford Blue. Rowing career Kusurin started out his spor ...

rowed for Croatia, New Zealander

won a bronze in the coxless pair, Sjoerd Hamburger rowed for The Netherlands, and Tom Solesbury for Great Britain. Cambridge's crew contained five returning

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

to Oxford's three.

Race

Cambridge won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station. Cambridge's cox Dowbiggin raised her hand to indicate that she was not ready to start just as Umpire

Boris Rankov Nikolas Boris Rankov (born 9 August 1954) is a British professor of Roman history at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is a former rower and current umpire. Early life, education and family Rankov was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, the ...

started the race. This allowed Oxford the initiative and they took an early lead. Cambridge slowly edged their way back into contention, and held a half-a-length lead at the two-mile mark. At St Paul's School, Cambridge were two-thirds of a length ahead before a series of oar clashes and umpire warnings forced the boats apart. A larger clash, between Cambridge's Monaghan and Oxford's Smith, took place by

Chiswick Eyot Chiswick Eyot is a narrow, uninhabited ait (river island) of the Thames. It is a tree- and reed-covered rise on the Tideway by Chiswick, in London, England and is overlooked by Chiswick Mall and by some of the Barnes riverside on the far ban ...

before Oxford made the better recovery and quickly pushed out to secure a clear-water lead. Cambridge failed to threaten, and Oxford won by lengths. In the reserve race, Isis defeated Goldie by four lengths, completing the race in a time of 17 minutes 24 seconds, for their second consecutive win. Oxford won the Women's Boat Race by lengths, hosted at Henley on 22 March 2014.

Reaction

Oxford's boat club president Colin Smith said "it's a great, great feeling". He continued: "The difference between the two crews today was our power, aggression and stickability". Cambridge's Australian international Cubasch said "it's really devastating. Sometimes you'd be happy with a silver but here it's dead last." His coach, Chris Nilsson, admitted "at the end of the day, the stronger crew with the more power came through". Oxford coach Sean Bowden said "We just said 'get to halfway, and head for home’, and they did a really good job".

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boat Race 2009 The Boat Race 2009 in English sport 2009 in rowing 2009 sports events in London March 2009 sports events in the United Kingdom