Kiwi women win famous boat race
Two New Zealand rowers have helped Cambridge University win the prestigious River Thames Boat Race against an Oxford University team captained by a Kiwi compatriot.
Christchurch’s Anna Dawson and Hamilton’s Alice White were in the Cambridge team which won by 11 lengths yesterday and set a course record of 18min 33sec.
Oxford, which included Wanganui’s former world championships rower Harriet Austin, had a disastrous start to the 6.8km race from Putney to Mortlake in south-west London.
Rebecca Esselstein, in the number four seat, made a mistake with her oar, an error known as catching a crab, soon after the start at Putney.
Oxford never recovered from the setback, allowing Cambridge to streak away to an unassailable 10sec lead at the first marker as they went on to win the title after four successive defeats.
Dawson, White and their teammates punched the air in delight as Cambridge celebrated their first victory since 2012, while Oxford were distraught at the finish with some crew members in tears.
The Cambridge crew included four members of their 2016 complement, who lost to Oxford by 24 lengths after nearly sinking to the bottom of the river.
Coach Rob Baker said Cambridge had ‘‘done some amazing things in training and produced some phenomenal times, so I knew how fast the crew was’’.
He expected it to be ‘‘a very fast day for us’’ and his faith was rewarded when Cambridge broke the race record by a minute, recording a quicker time than their male crew produced in the 2016 event.
Dawson, 26, and White, 24, are no strangers to success. Dawson won a gold medal at the world junior championships with a New Zealand crew and White was a world junior bronze medallist.
Austin, 28, who captained Oxford in her boat race debut, said she was proud of the way her crew recovered from their setback.
‘‘The start didn’t go as we’d planned but I think we got it together really well and I am really proud of the girls and the effort we put in.
‘‘It was a good race but today was Cambridge’s day.’’
Oxford won the men’s race, holding out Cambridge in a tight finish.