The Boat Race 2009

First held in 1829, the competition is a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) race along The Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London.

[8] Oxford fielded five rowers who had featured at the 2008 Summer Olympics: Colin Smith won silver for Great Britain,[9] while Ante Kušurin rowed for Croatia,[10] New Zealander George Bridgewater won a bronze in the coxless pair,[11] Sjoerd Hamburger rowed for The Netherlands,[12] and Tom Solesbury for Great Britain.

Cambridge slowly edged their way back into contention, and held a half-a-length lead at the two-mile mark.

[17] 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.

"[18] His coach, Chris Nilsson, admitted "at the end of the day, the stronger crew with the more power came through".

[19] Oxford coach Sean Bowden said "We just said 'get to halfway, and head for home’, and they did a really good job".

Oxford crew at the start
Cambridge crew at the start (cox Dowbiggin has her hand raised to indicate she and her crew are not ready to start)
Boris Rankov (pictured in 2015) was the race umpire.