Tim Koch: A Significant Result?

Oxford

HTBS’s Tim Koch sends a fresh report from yesterday’s races on the Thames. Tim writes,

On Saturday 24 March the Oxford Blue Boat had its final race before the big day on 7 April. It took on an eight from the Leander development squad, racing from Putney to Chiswick Steps, and won by 20 seconds. A full race report is on the official Boat Race site here. Interestingly, six of the LC crew were in a boat that raced Cambridge on the 10 March (race report here). On that occasion Leander also lost but the Light Blues had to work much harder than Oxford did to beat the boys from the Pink Palace. The Cambridge race was described as by Peter McConnell as ‘tightly fought’ while he called yesterday’s fixture ‘a mismatch with Oxford dominant from the moment umpire Richard Phelps dropped his flag’. Perhaps Leander just had a bad day, most of the crew were in the boat that came 16th in the Head of the River last week so they should not be slow. Alternatively, perhaps Oxford are very fast. We will find out in two weeks.

Oxford lead Leander comfortably at Hammersmith Bridge.

Isis (Oxford Reserve Heavyweight Men) raced Tideway Scullers and won by 2 1/2 lengths.

Today, Sunday 25 March, Cambridge race Molesey Boat Club and Goldie (Cambridge Reserve Heavyweight Men) race Imperial College.

Also today is the ‘Henley Boat Races’, that is the Oxford and Cambridge women and the lightweight men racing 2km over the Henley Reach:

Women’s Boat Race - OUWBC v. CUWBC

Women’s Reserves - Osiris v. Blondie

Lightweight Women’s Boat Race - OUWLRC v. CUWBC Lightweights

Lightweight Men’s Boat Race - OULRC v. CULRC

As reported in February on HTBS, from 2015 the heavyweight women will be racing on the Tideway with the heavyweight men. This gives rise to an interesting conundrum for the girls over 59 kg / 130 lbs. The final decision on who goes in the ‘Blue Boat’ and who goes in the Reserve Boat is not made until a few weeks before the race. The problem with this is that the First Boat has to train for a 6.8 km race while the Second Boat has to train for a 2 km event. I suppose that initially everyone will train for the longer distance and when the reserve crew is chosen it will then adapt its practice for the shorter course.