Preview

Who Will Reign Supreme?

The Boat Race Preview

WORDS TOM RANSLEY

Photography: Benedict Tufnell

Last year the Tideway ran light blue as Cambridge continued their domination of The Boat Race. On the tenth anniversary of the Women’s Boat Race moving to The Championship Course, the Cambridge women held their nerve after wayward steering from Oxford caused a violent clash of blades and a dramatic restart. Oxford’s oarsmen fared no better: for the third consecutive year Cambridge secured victory in the Men’s Boat Race. As the next chapter of this historic rivalry approaches are Oxford ready to turn the tide?

Counting On Cloud Nine

But for the cool of four-time Olympic champion and Boat Race umpire, Sir Matthew Pinsent, the Women’s Boat Race 2025 could have been as short-lived as it was drama-filled. A calamitous conclusion was avoided when Pinsent allowed the two crews to restart and race the remainder of the course, after a catastrophic clash of blades and boat-stopping crab (when a rower loses control of their oar) 90-seconds in, caused by Oxford’s wayward steering.

“To my mind I was absolutely clearly warning Oxford in the run-up to that,” said Pinsent post-race. “And in that moment when you’ve got two crews at a standstill there was no way they were going to carry on racing. The clash was heavy enough that it was going to stop the race. You could DQ someone straight away – that pops into your mind – but you also can allow, after a restart, to see whether it affected the outcome of the race. Obviously in my opinion it did not affect the outcome of that race.”

Shaken but not deterred, Cambridge rowed away from Oxford, albeit less convincingly than after their first start beneath the crowds on Putney Bridge. A determined effort from Oxford only left them wondering what might have been if not for the clash. By the finish the Light Blues had stretched their lead to two and half lengths. Win number 49, their eighth unanswered.

So the Cambridge juggernaut continues, for now, at least. Any signs of rust? Besides an early season blip in Boston, no, not really. More on that later. The Cambridge women’s squad is teeming with talent. Their president alone, Gemma King, has five Boat Race wins to her name. Medical student and two-time winning Blue Carys Earl brings yet more Boat Race experience, as do the former Blondie athletes Mia Freischem, Nicky Wojtania, Eloise Etherington, and Ellie Sillar.

New recruits Antonia Galland and Camille VanderMeer are rewriting club records with their eye-watering performances on the indoor rowing machine. Galland is something of an eights specialist; she made her senior international debut with the German women’s eight at the 2023 world championships and has minor medals at the under-23 level.

VanderMeer arrived in Cambridge days after her world-beating performance in Shanghai, China, where she won world gold with the USA women’s four. The MBA student’s rowing journey started in the basement of her family home, coached by her uncle, Andrew Kallfelz. VanderMeer started out as a sculler before winning gold in the under-23 women’s eight. The American will be a lynchpin in the Light Blue line-up.

“But for the cool of umpire, Sir Matthew Pinsent, the Women’s Boat Race 2025 could have been as short-lived as it was drama-filled.”

More North American muscle comes from Canadians Isobel Campbell and Lyndsey Bryden, both under-23 women’s eights bronze medallists. Team USA cox and Paralympic medallist Emelie Eldracher adds yet more swag, likewise Germany’s junior women’s eight silver medallist Mathilda Kitzmann.

Cambridge chief coach Paddy Ryan has his hands full when it comes to deciding who steers. Impressive as they are, Eldracher’s coxing credentials are no guarantee of Blue Boat selection. Indeed, Matt Moran – who has Tideway know-how from his time at Thames Rowing Club – and Lidya Acar got the nod to cox Trial Eights; with Acar’s Baby Spice getting the better of Ginger Spice on that occasion. No matter who takes the reins it will be their first time coxing The Boat Race. No pressure then.

The Dark Blues started their 2026 season with a confidence-boosting bronze medal at The Head Of The Charles Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts, beating Cambridge, in ninth, by over 22 seconds. Many miles later, and despite a wet winter and associated flooding at their home in Wallingford, Oxford’s morale remains high. And for good reason.

The Oxford women’s squad has plenty of Boat Race experience to draw on. Six of the 2025 Blue Boat and half of Osiris are back for another crack at Boat Race glory, including last year’s Women’s President Annie Anezakis, the Australian final year medical student. So too is the former Isis cox, Louis Corrigan, who was Oxford Men’s President in 2024. Like Anezakis, the three-time Oxford Blue and graduate economist Sarah Marshall hopes her fourth and final race along The Championship Course is a Cambridge-beating success.

Oxford boasts Olympians among their ranks. Before making her Boat Race debut, 2026 Women’s President Heidi Long won an Olympic bronze medal in the British women’s eight at the 2024 Paris Games. The former world champion is a solid candidate for the stroke seat, as was her position last year. Esther Briz Zamorano is new to the team. The Spanish Olympian and two-time Beach Sprint champion will likely sit in the middle of the Oxford Blue Boat, adding power and rhythm. Together with teammates Kyra Delray and Julietta Camahort, these two stars placed third at the Fours Head, a race run over the reverse of the Boat Race course.

“The Cambridge juggernaut continues, for now, at least. Any signs of rust? No, not really.”

Kyra Delray is another Brit with international pedigree. Last year Delray spent the early season recovering from a double hip operation. This time the European A-finalist and world medallist can bring her full force to the Dark Blue camp. American newcomers Emily Molins and Camahort are handy editions to the Oxford squad, both are former under-23 medallists.

Hope then for their chief coach, Allan French, who, in his third season in charge, strives for his first Boat Race win and a change of fortune for the Dark Blues. Any complacency though will surely see the Cambridge oarswomen power home to their ninth consecutive victory.

No Pulling Punches

The Men’s Boat Race 2026 is a mismatch of monstrous proportions, as per one Oxford insider, who lamented: “If this was a boxing match it wouldn’t be sanctioned.”

It’s true. The recent run of results has skewed Light Blue. Cambridge have won six of the last seven races. Another win and theirs will be the longest Men’s Boat Race winning streak since the ‘90s, albeit a hat trick shy of their seven consecutive victories from 1993 to 1999. That run followed a decade of Dark Blue dominance when Oxford won every race bar one (1986) from 1976 to 1992.

Oxford’s most recent win was in 2022, when their Olympian-laden Blue Boat duffed up Cambridge to the tune of two and half lengths. But that must feel like a lifetime ago for the Dark Blues, since then Oxford have suffered the ignominy of two Cambridge clean sweeps, and an ever-widening gap to close, with the margin of victory growing in each of the subsequent three contests.

The Boat Race 2025 saw the Oxford men on the wrong side of five and half lengths. “It’s close to a humiliation that distance with so many Olympians in that Oxford boat and Cambridge so far ahead,” said the broadcaster and 1984 Olympic champion Martin Cross.

In an attempt to turn the tide Oxford have spent the last few seasons clearing house, instigating sweeping changes to their coaching roster and organisational structure. Positive change doesn’t happen overnight, but in just his second season in the job, things aren’t looking too bright for the new Oxford men’s chief coach Mark Fangen-Hall.

Cambridge are cooking. For the second year running the Light Blues started their season stateside, winning America’s famous fall regatta, The Head Of The Charles Regatta. (The Oxford men scrapped their entry and did not race.)

Fangen-Hall’s counterpart in Cambridge, Rob Baker, has a deep talent
pool from which to select his Blue Boat.

Returning Cambridge Blues include Noam Mouelle, Luke Beever, Matt Edge and Simon Hatcher. These four Blues alone have eleven Boat Race victories between them, which includes Edge’s time in

Goldie and the lightweights. Felix Rawlinson is another Cambridge rower with Blue Boat experience, albeit for the other side. The former under-23 world champion and stem cell biologist rowed for Oxford in last year’s Boat Race.

“For ardent Oxonians and diehard Dark Blue optimists this race has the hallmarks of an epic underdog triumph.”

Bolstering these Blues are two incoming internationals, Germany’s Frederik Breuer and Australia’s Alexander McClean. Both are world cup medallists. Breuer last raced for Germany at the Paris Olympics in 2024, finishing fourth in the men’s eights. McClean made his senior international debut at the 2025 world championships in China, and also finished fourth in the men’s eight.

And that’s not to mention the likes of former under-23 world champions Alex Finger, Calvin Tarczy, Simon Nunayon, and Gabriel Obholzer. The latter of whom has been breaking records on the indoor rowing machine since he was a teenager and has three under-23 gold medals. The Harvard alum happens to be the son of Rupert Obholzer, a winning Oxford Blue from 1991 and Atlanta Olympic bronze medallist.

So is there any hope for Oxford? Are the Dark Blues punch drunk on defeat?

If Oxford do pull off the Hail Mary of Boat Race victories, then a certain up-and-coming Brit will likely lead the charge. Trial Eights winner Harry Geffen is a natural born boat mover who discovered the sport at Eton College. The four-time under-23 world champion made his senior international debut at last year’s world championships in the men’s pair. With eyes on LA 2028, Geffen is working hard to haul himself up the international rowing ranks and will surely be an integral member of Oxford’s Blue Boat.

When it comes to Tideway tactics, Oxford are well served by cox Tobias Bernard. The former Westminster schoolboy learnt to cox on The Championship Course and possesses a keen understanding of this beguiling stretch of water. Twice he has raced Cambridge and twice he has come up short. First, in the Men’s Reserves Race in 2024 and again, last year, in The Boat Race, when he coxed Oxford’s Blue Boat. The chemistry undergraduate will hope to make it third time lucky in 2026. Elected as men’s president, Bernard made a strong start to this campaign by coxing Iceman, his Trial Eights boat, to a seven-length victory.

International pedigree at Oxford comes courtesy of Austria’s lightweight world medallist Julian Schölberl, Australia’s under-23 world medallist Jamie Arnold, and the American sculler James Fetter. A notable lack of Dark Blue Boat Race experience is somewhat offset by ex-Isis rowers Alex Underwood, Felix Crabtree, and erg-powerhouse Paolo Cicuta.

For ardent Oxonians and diehard Dark Blue optimists this race has the hallmarks of an epic underdog triumph. Should their crew prevail come Saturday 4 April, it will be the stuff of legend, a truly David and Goliath feat of achievement. Oxford may wish to channel their inner Buster Douglas. A knockout blow from Oxford would certainly live long in the memory. •