Boat Race: Oxford records epic win

It was the perfect way for Hudspith to mark his 25th birthday and to bury the pain and bitterness of losing last year’s race in controversial fashion. Hudspith was president of the 2012 Oxford crew that had rowed themselves into a strong position when the race was interrupted by a protest swimmer.

Oxford then broke a blade after the restart and Cambridge won but worse was still to come, when Dark Blue bowman Dr Alex Woods collapsed in the boat and was rushed to hospital.

Woods recovered to be part of the victorious Isis crew in yesterday’s reserve race.

Hudspith and 2013 president Alex Davidson returned to avenge their defeat in the blue boat. Hudspith said: “A year ago, I was carrying my friend’s body on a stretcher thinking a few moments ago he had died. That was pretty much the worst moment of my life.

“You can sit around in bitterness and anger or put it past you and get back to work. That was a real Boat Race. That was a really epic race. That was the race I have been waiting for these last couple of years. This is a very different feeling.”

The official line from Oxford was that revenge was not on the menu but Hudspith and Davidson were not alone in being fuelled by the events of last year.

Oxford, who won the toss and opted for the Surrey station, started strongly to open a lead of two-thirds of a length but they could not drop Cambridge. The Light Blues were on the outside but stayed with Oxford almost all the way around the long Surrey bend.

This time it was they who looked in the strongest position. But just before the river turned into Cambridge’s favour, Oxford put in the decisive push to open up clear water and claim the racing line.

“Inevitably revenge was in our minds,” said Oxford’s Constantine Louloudis, who missed the 2012 race to focus on the Olympics.

“It was not against any individuals but against what happened last year, wanting to put it right. It was especially the guys who were in both races, but also the rest of us who really felt for those guys last year.

“It was a hell of a race. It is fair to say we fancied our chances going into the race but Cambridge made it bloody difficult.”

Louloudis, who won bronze in the Great Britain eight at London 2012, credited Oxford cox Oskar Zorrilla with driving the crew on around the “attritional” middle section.

Zorrilla put the victory down to Oxford’s “indestructible, devastating rhythm” before he was thrown, in the traditional manner, into the Thames.

In contrast, Cambridge coach Steve Trapmore spoke of the devastation felt by his crew following defeat by a length and a half, a small margin over four and a quarter miles.

“The whole campaign is geared up towards this moment and to not achieve your target is hard,” said Trampore, an Olympic champion in 2000. “The guys produced a really valiant effort. We knew were up against a physically strong Oxford boat. We showed tenacity and grit in the race and never gave up so I am really proud of them.”

Cambridge president George Nash, a good friend of Louloudis from their time together in the British squad, tasted defeat for the second time in three races.

The 23-year-old, also an Olympic bronze medallist from London 2012, graduates in engineering at the end of this academic year and will have no opportunity to make up for it. “Eventually, they put in one too many moves, they asked too many questions and we were just unable to come up with the goods,” Nash told the BBC. “It is something that will replay in my head for the rest of my life.”

Davidson revealed before the race that his sporting icon was Ayrton Senna, for the Brazilian driver’s ability to rise above the raging politics of Formula 1 and prove he was the best.

Davidson, Hudspith and Oxford could not overcome the dramas of the 2012 Boat Race – but the Dark Blue president sensed on the start line that the 2013 crew would live up to their billing of favourites.

“I sat on the stakeboat and I said to Karl ‘this is going to be our day’,” Davidson said. “We didn’t let it not be our day.”