Dust off the vest, iron these red cords, break the strawberry punnets. We are back on the Thames!
After Boat Race 2020 has been canceled and last year’s event moved to Great Ouse for the first time since the war, this year our team will once again travel the traditional 4.2 mile route from Putney to Mortlake – and with 250 000 spectators expected the river. There will be bubbling.
As for rowers, Oxford has a nascent monopoly to break. The two Cambridge teams won last year’s contest by less than a length, the fourth win in a row for the women and the third for the men. A men’s side containing two Olympic medalists, in the form of Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith, will be much-appreciated to continue that run today against an Oxford side featuring British U23 medalists David Ambler and Tobias Schröde.
The women’s team will be even bigger favourites: Grace Prendergast, who won gold and silver in Tokyo, may well be the best boatman in the world, while Ruby Tew – fourth in Rio – and Imogen Gran of the Team GB, who have won medals at the World and European Championships, are also part of a squad that makes Oxford a daunting task.
Today’s tides dictate that the 76th women’s race will start at 2:23 p.m. and the 167th men’s race will start at 3:23 p.m.
