The Boat Race 2019 - Cambridge win the double

Cambridge went away victorious in both the men's and women's races, with both teams extending their lead in number of wins against Oxford.

Photo from Cambridge News

Cambridge women won their 44th boat race, with Oxford victorious 30 times.
The Light Blues were 15 seconds shy of a record time, finishing in 18 minutes 47 second.
Victory in the women's race was Cambridge's 44th; Oxford have won 30.
Larkin Sayre, the Cambridge boat captain, said "This is so special; we have been working towards this for two years, this is the culmination of so much work."
The race was controlled by Cambridge from the start, leading by a length after four minutes, which had extended to three lengths by the time the passed Hammersmith Bridge.
Blondie, Cambridge's reserve boat, also won the women's reserve race, beating Oxford's Osiris by five lengths.

Photo from The Times

Cambridge beat Oxford for the second successive year to win the 165th men's Boat Race.
The men's competition was much closer than their female counterparts - just two seconds separating the teams as they crossed the line.
The Light Blues won with a time of 16 minutes 57 seconds.
Oars clashed early on as Cambridge steered towards their opponents, before opening up a two-length lead.
Oxford narrowed that gap towards the end of the race, finishing less than one length behind.
Matthew Holland, Cambridge's cox, said victory was "indescribable".
"This is a year of training, a year of hard work. The guys have put so much hard work into this," he added.
It was the first time they have achieved back-to-back victories since 1999.

Olympic champion in the Boat Race? You must be Crackers
The twilight of James Cracknell's rowing career already has and will grab the headlines.
The two-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion is studying human evolution at Cambridge, and became the oldest person to compete at the age of 46.
The race made him realise how much he missed the sport, adding "I surprisingly did not regret my decision to do this at any point in the race. At the start I thought, 'I've missed this, I haven't felt this for 20 years'."

Photo from The Telegraph

While breaking a record should be acknowledged, and such a big name in the sport should bring extra attention to the race, I can't help but feel like Cracknell (pictured third from left) overshadowed the rest of the rowers.
On the BBC's coverage of the event, there was a video montage of Cracknell's career highlights and life events, meanwhile the female rowers were about to start and had hardly got a mention by that point.
I thought this a real shame because I respect Clare Balding as a broadcaster, and as a role model and an icon for female sport, she should have told the production team that she wanted more focus on the other rowers, particularly the women, who each got about 15 seconds of introduction, compared to Cracknell's life story.
Even after the race, the rest of the Cambridge team were made to talk about how important Cracknell was to the team.
Some would even argue that he shouldn't have had extra attention on him, while there are some up-and-coming rowers who we may see in Olympics in years-to-come, Cracknell has already done all that, and yet he's the one getting the publicity.
But that's far too cynical, even for me.
As I say, his involvement should be recognised and acknowledged, but I feel they really made the most of it, not really bothering to preview any of the other rowers.

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