Boat race turncoat whose treachery paid off!
After pain of defeat with Cambridge, he moves to Oxford... and wins
WITH almost 200 years of history and an all-or-nothing attitude driving the two teams, the Oxford and Cambridge boat race is always hugely competitive.
But the rivalry reached new heights yesterday, after one rower switched sides – and his treachery paid off.
William Warr revealed he had been shunned by former teammates after defecting from the light blue of Cambridge to the dark blue of Oxford, helping row his new team to victory.
He was only the third man to make such a switch in 188 years – and it didn’t matter that the 6ft 5in 25-year-old had to move to do a PhD in public policy.
Warr, who was on the losing Cambridge University side in 2015, said before the race: ‘It hasn’t been easy. Guys I was really close with now barely speak to me.
‘Some have said they really hope I lose, that they totally disagree with what I’m doing.’
The enmity was plain at the weigh-in, where Oxford’s Vassilis Ragoussis and Cambridge’s Henry Meek stood toe-to-toe and stared at each other, both refusing to let go of the other’s hand, in a stand-off that looked like boxers squaring up before a championship fight.
Cambridge president Lance Tredell refused to let his teammate take the blame for the incident conference, during saying:a pre-race ‘This presswas not initiated from the Cambridge side.’ Oxford counterpart Michael DiSanto tried to laugh off the confrontation, saying: ‘It was just a bit of fun.’
But on the water, the teams’ oars clashed more than once as Oxford gained a small advantage from the start in Putney and Cambridge refused to let them open up the lead.
In the end, Oxford powered to victory at Mortlake by a narrow margin, ending their rivals’ hopes of their first back-toback win since 1999. There had been some concerns that the four-mile, 374yard race would not take place after a Second World War bomb was found in the river near the start line during a low tide. In the end, it was removed safely. Cambridge comfortably won the 72nd ladies’ race after an Oxford oar got caught in the water at the start, forcing the team to stop momentarily.