Oxford head coach Sean Bowden paid tribute to his Dark Blue crew that won this afternoon’s 152nd Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging.

"We had a really good race, everything worked for us. The guys executed the plan 100 per cent," he said.

"I’m very satisfied. Everything worked out so well and they showed their best out there

"We tried to stay with them in the first half of the race and we backed ourselves in the second half of the race.

"This crew is clearly an outstanding eight and they didn’t let themselves down at all today," he added. "They showed they could row to the top professional level and that’s what they’ve trained for the last six months for.

"It worked straight from the start and there was no point of the race we weren’t rowing well."