Oxford’s women row into boat race history

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/11/oxford-women-boat-race-cambridge-history

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It was a historic day, when the women’s boat race was staged over the same stretch of the Thames as the men for the first time – and also broadcast live for the first time. So it was appropriate that the winning Oxford boat was called Catalyst.

Women’s sport has often struggled for exposure but, on its 70th outing, the women’s race was finally given pride of place in the schedules and on TV. Unfortunately, while it was historic, the race was no classic. The gap in class between the two crews was apparent as soon as the starter Simon Harris cried “Go!” Oxford were a length clear after two minutes and finished the 4.2 mile course 19 seconds and six-and-a-half lengths clear of Cambridge.

This is usually as much a social occasion as a sporting event; a time for catch-ups and cold beers. On this day, however, the oar of history gave the 186-year-old race a much-needed prod.

Among the quarter of a million people watching as the Oxford and Cambridge boats pushed and wheezed along the four-and-a-quarter-mile horseshoe between Putney and Chiswick Bridge was German rower Anna Reinicke, who competed for Cambridge in 2004. “I have flown over from Hamburg because I wanted to see history being made with my own eyes,” she told the Observer. “When I rowed, the men had nothing to do with us. Now we have equality. This is a day I never thought would come.” Meanwhile, Dr Stephanie Jones, who competed for Oxford in the reserve women’s race in 2012, said the promise of BBC TV exposure had led to improved funding – and improved standards. There was one other benefit, too. “Three years ago, the women had to get public buses to training,” she said. “Now we have our own minibus like the men.”

Of course, some remain sniffy about the event, regardless of how much it modernises. The sight of pop-up grills at Putney selling “pulled duck with papaya and mango slaw with a sesame and poppy seed bun” – and ice-cream vans referring to their produce as “fresh-made gelato” – would have only hardened the prejudices of any Citizen Smiths up from Tooting.

But amid the rowers – who have all trained at least twice a day, six days a week, through autumn and winter while also studying – were those who bucked lazy stereotypes. For instance, Oxford’s Maddy Badcott, 19, started her career on a Learn to Row course in Hackney. And according to Eve Edwards, a 21-year-old Cambridge student and amateur rower, increased attention on the women’s race had already led to more people wanting to take up the sport.

Meanwhile her friend, Fiona Macklin, insisted that where rowing had led, other sports would likely follow. “It’s massive not just for rowing but for all women’s sports at Cambridge,” she said. “Now the rugby girls are also trying to get equality. This is a giant step forward.”

It is a vast change from the first women’s race in 1927. Back then, the two crews rowed - separately – outside Oxford for about a mile because racing each other was deemed “unladylike”. Instead the women were judged on their style downstream and their speed upstream. As one contemporary report noted, the umpires disagreed on questions of style, but Oxford were judged the victors because they covered the distance 15 seconds faster.

Since then, the women’s race has been derided, ignored or – during part of the 50s and 60s – not rowed at all because of financial issues. From 1977 it has been held at Henley, over a course of just over two kilometres, largely ignored except by the dedicated.

How that flip-flopped on a warm and breezy spring day in London. Back in 1927, it was reported that “large and hostile crowds gathered on the towpath”. On Saturday, the women were greeted by a triumphant trumpet of cheers.

Looking on, despite the emphatic nature of Oxford’s victory, it was hard not to feel that this ancient and highly idiosyncratic race had been given a much-needed blast of fresh air.