Something special is brewing in the Oxford women’s programme. Both of Friday’s trial eights crews featured an impressive mix of returners from past Boat Races, experienced new recruits from overseas, and budding collegiate rowers brought in from the club’s wider development programme. The ultimate result was a convincing win for Ledecky, who finished just over five boat lengths ahead of Williams. However, the opening minutes of the race were fiercely contested, and head coach Allan French can be pleased with the grit and determination shown by both crews throughout a challenging race.
Both trial eights were led down the Championship Course by some of Oxford’s most experienced rowers. Former club president Annie Anezakis stroked the Williams crew in what is likely to be her fourth and final Boat Race campaign, and last year’s stroke seat and current club president Heidi Long stroked Ledecky.
Perhaps thanks to this expertise, both crews got off to a flying start, and there was little to choose between them in the first minute of the race. As the sixteen rowers and two coxes battled along the Putney embankment towards Fulham Football Club, Ledecky looked slightly more composed and managed to eke out a slight lead. Long appeared to stride her crew onto a powerful, controlled rhythm, while Anezakis kept the stroke rate high.
The differing tactics seemed to work for each crew, and the distance between the bow balls for the next minute was not more than a few feet. Into the third minute of the race, the crews moved closer together, and with the boats less than an oar’s width apart, Williams drew the first warning from the umpire.
As cox Daniel Orton responded by moving safely away towards the Middlesex bank, Ledecky was warned, and Louis Corrigan had to make a correction of his own. Perhaps sensing that this would be a crucial moment in the race, both coxes kept their crews close together, and for the next few strokes, the umpire’s flag waved in all directions, warning both crews repeatedly. With neither cox willing to concede the fastest water, the dark blue blades began to overlap, and in the choppy water and frantic blade work that followed, the two-seat of the trailing Williams crew caught a boat-stopping crab.
If the goal of trial eights is to give the athletes a taste of just what might happen on race day, the OUBC women have achieved precisely that. Just as happened in the real Boat Race last year, the umpire ordered crews to stop rowing immediately, following the clash, and prepare to start the race again. Ledeckey was judged to have been one-third of a boat length ahead going into the stoppage, so they were given this lead back when the race was restarted two minutes later. As the crews moved off once more, Williams out-rated Ledeckey again, but it was the Surrey-side crew that found more boat speed on the restart, and they began to move away once again. Despite the huge effort and determination evident on the faces of the Williams crew, they were unable to hold off their teammates this time. Ledecky continued to move up, and by the Old Harrod’s depository, they managed to break into clear water.
Both crews can take pride in how they handled the rest of the race. Despite the outcome being all but certain from Hammersmith Bridge onwards, no athlete let their intensity drop, and Williams managed to keep their stroke rate high even as the wind battered their blades throughout the long Chiswick bend. The weather on Friday was much more pleasant than it was for Cambridge’s Trial Eights the day before, but the wind and waves in the second half of Oxford’s race gave both crews a taste of what the Tideway might throw at them in April, and they now know they can handle it. Both crews had clearly given it all by the finish line, and the shells moved together under Chiswick Bridge for the handshakes and hugs that are customary in trial eights.
While it is impossible to ignore the last nine years, during which the light blues of Cambridge have dominated the Women’s Boat Race, it is clear that Oxford is focused on building a programme for the future. Both trial eights crews contained rowers clearly capable of racing well on the Tideway, and many who raced today will make it to The Boat Race one day. At the halfway point in this year’s campaign, Oxford can take pride in being the best UK University crew at the Head of the Charles and the fastest eight at Wallingford Head. Oxford now heads into its winter break before its training camp in the new year, where it will begin preparing for fixtures and more racing on the Tideway.
