The Boat Race Just next to Putney Bridge and for the next four miles and 374 sheer brute force and endurance. yards (6.8km) upstream to Mortlake and Chiswick Bridge is a In addition to the lengthier, more difficult course, e Boat stretch of water that is the venue for the most extraordinary dis - Race is rowed by teams consisting entirely of full-time students, play of strength, stamina and teamwork by amateur athletes you not full-time athletes. Each team member must be enrolled either are ever likely to see. e annual rowing race between Oxford as an undergraduate or post-graduate student attending tutorials and Cambridge Universities, or e Boat Race as it’s officially and meeting deadlines all while following a training schedule known, is a 187-year sporting rivalry and tradition that pits the similar to that of a professional athlete. From the preceding elite rowers of both universities against each other on a course September the race crews will start training typically six days a unlike any other in the world. Tens of thousands of Londoners week. e six-month period from September to race day in and others who travel to the city for the spectacle view e Boat March is a relatively short period of time full of intense training Race from along the banks of the ames Tideway and on the and regatta fixtures in which coaches assess the dynamics of bridges spanning the river. Many millions more tune in on TV prospective team members and rowers vie for their spot on the making it one of the most popular sporting events of the year boat. Some team members will have had a few years experience and the only televised non-international rowing event. It is esti - while others, such as ea Zabell, may have started rowing only mated that the race draws more than three times the number of at university. Zabell was a 20-year-old Cambridge student who spectators who attend the FA Cup Final at Wembley. Like the only started rowing at the end of 2014 when she earned her place Grand National horserace, e Boat Race is a one-off event that in the 2015 Women’s Boat Race crew. many eagerly watch. So what sets this race apart from other rowing races? For History of The Boat Race starters, it’s longer than any other course. All Olympic rowing e Boat Race was founded when two old school friends, one at courses are set at 2,000 metres; the world famous Henley Regatta Cambridge and one at Oxford, are said to have met up during distance is set at 2,112 metres and the Head of the Charles vacation and decided to challenge each other’s respective universi - Regatta in Boston is 4,800 metres. e Boat Race route, known ties “to row a match at or near London, each in an eight-oared as the Championship Course, runs over a course of 6,800 metres. Moreover, unlike Olympic rowing events, which take place on flat lakes with competitors separated from each other by lane buoys, e Boat Race takes place on an open, tidal river exposed “ It’s estimated that the race draws more than to elements that can be turbulent and dramatic. It’s not just a three times the number of spectators who longer course, but one that requires approximately four miles of exhaustive, back breaking effort where strategy is as important as attend the FA Cup Final at Wembley. ” 4 FOCUS The Magazine March/April 2017 www.focus-info.org boat during the ensuing Easter vacation”. e invitation to this first race, which was formally issued by Cambridge to Oxford, F UN FACTS A BOUT T HE B OAT R ACE was held on 10 June 1829 at Henley on ames. Oxford easily won this first race and its winning boat is on display at the River First boats had no sliding seats so rowers would use grease & Rowing Museum in Henley on ames. From that first match or sheepskin to slide. the boats have been known as the Blue Boats with Oxford racing No rower can race more than four times as an in dark blue and Cambridge in light blue. Rowers of both uni - undergraduate and four times as a graduate student. versities who earn a place on a boat for the race are awarded their ‘Blue’. 2003 was the closest race. Oxford won by one foot. Perhaps because Cambridge had issued the challenge and was The record for fastest race win was set by Cambridge in then defeated, its enthusiasm for a subsequent match may have 1998 at 16min 19sec. been dampened and the next fixture was not held until 1836. e course for this race was moved to London between Both boats are called ‘Blue Boats’ although neither is blue. Westminster and Putney, but there was too much commercial Mike Wherley, at 36 years in 2008, was the oldest rower to traffic on that stretch of the river and more disagreement fol - compete in the Boat Race. lowed over where to hold the next five races. Oxford preferred London and Cambridge favoured Henley. From 1845 the course Legendary Oxford coach Daniel Topolski won 12 out of 15 was altered once again, setting it from Putney to Mortlake. e races from 1973-1987 including the longest winning streak of race itself was confirmed as an annual event in 1856 and each 10 races. year the losing team officially challenges the winner to a rematch. Race umpires are always called ‘Old Blues’ and sometimes wear a colour to indicate which university they rowed for. By tradition the winning team always throws their cox into the river after they’ve been presented with the trophy. The infamous Mutiny of 1987 occurred when five US rowers dramatically quit the Oxford crew shortly before the race. The Boat Race is one of the longest and hardest races in the world and several rowers have fainted after completing it. Oxford has won 79 times, Cambridge 82. Oxford Women have won 30 to Cambridge Women’s 41. yards or half a mile. A combination of opposition to women’s rowing, an unfortunate accident on the river in which the The Women’s Boat Race Oxford crew rowed over a weir and were banned from the river, e Boat Race isn’t exclusively the preserve of male rowers. e and a lack of funds meant there were no races for nearly 10 years Women’s Boat Race, as it’s formally known, was first held in until the women’s race was revived in 1962. In the 1970s the 1927 on the ames in Oxford and organised intermittently race was moved to Henley and since 2015 it has finally taken until the 1960s when it was fixed as an annual event. Unlike the place on the same course and on the same day as the men’s boat men however, the first women’s crews were not allowed on the race. Women have competed on the Championship Course prior river at the same time so instead of a side by side race it was to 2015 - Sue Brown coxed Oxford to victory in 1981 and 1982 judged on ‘style’ while rowing downstream and speed while row - and in 1989 both teams were coxed by women - despite belat - ing up. From 1935 it became a proper contest fixed over 1,000 edly giving the women’s team equal standing with the men. Each race starts with a coin toss between the presidents of each rowing club. An 1829 gold sovereign coin, commemorating the H UGH L AURIE first year of the race, is used and the winning team can then pick (Cambridge. Actor best known for House ) which side of the river they will row on. e Middlesex, or north L ORD S NOWDON (Cambridge. Society photographer and side of the river means an advantage on the start and final sec - husband of Princess Margaret) tions of the race while the Surrey, or south side, means an advan - tage around the long middle bend of the river. e team T HE W INKLEVOSS TWINS (Oxford. Best known as the president makes his or her choice taking these factors, as well as disputed co-founders of Facebook) weather, river conditions and the strengths of the team into con - M ATTHEW P INSENT sideration when choosing their side of the river. (Oxford. Four-time Olympic gold medal winner) So how much does winning matter? e actual results some - times are overshadowed by dramatic events on the river. C ATH B ISHOP (Cambridge. World Champion and Olympic Spectators are more likely to remember 2012’s race when a pro - silver medal winner) testor swam into the ames, interrupted the race and was ar - DAN S NOW (Oxford. Author and TV historian) rested than whether light blue or dark lifted the trophy. A L ORD M OYNIHAN (Oxford. Olympic silver medalist, MP sinking boat will always be the most remarkable event in a race and chair of the British Olympic Association) when it happens. Luckily this hasn’t happened since 1978 when Cambridge started to take on water after Hammersmith Bridge www.focus-info.org FOCUS The Magazine 5 ing the race on the north side of the river is e Old Ship be - tween Upper Mall and Chiswick Mall. If you choose to stay south of the river you can follow the race along the ames Path from the start at Putney, but you’ll find the pubs for viewing the race right at or very near the finish line.