The high winds and rough water that tested the Oxford’s Trial race yesterday abated enough to allow an excellent race between Cambridge’s two crews - ‘Stay Calm’, stroked by German world champion Thorsten Engelmann, and ‘Just Relax’, led by Sydney gold medallist Kieran West.

‘Stay Calm’, steered by Rebecca Dowbiggin, took an early lead off the start with President Tom James, Canadian international Kristopher (Kip) McDaniel and Colin Scott providing a powerful engine room behind the experienced 25 year old Engelmann.

By the Black Buoy, two minutes into the race - they had a length and looked set to row away from their opponents but, on the corner at Fulham, West hit back as Dowbiggin took her crew wide allowing her rival Russell Glenn, last year’s Goldie cox, back into the race.

With a second German world champion Sebastian Schulte, American Don Wyper and Peter Champion behind him, West mounted attack after attack, repeatedly closing the gap, but Engelmann was always able to respond and hold on to his advantage. At Hammersmith Bridge, reached in seven minutes ten seconds, they were four seconds ahead.

As the crews passed St Paul’s School Glenn steered his crew over towards the Surrey side and at St Paul’s the crews had swapped stations with the crews almost overlapping. But again Engelmann stayed calm and moved out again to lead by two lengths at Barnes bridge. Glenn’s crew continued to fight back and had reduced the deficit at the finish to just four seconds.

Cambridge have a strong squad and today’s display will reinforce the opinion of many experts that they are, on paper, the pre-Race favourites.

“The Boat Race is all about what happens on the day”, said coach Duncan Holland after the race. “The Race is no respecter of reputations. We know that Oxford will have a good crew”.

Holland has been preparing his crews without the normal side-by-side racing in the week leading up to today’s race. “In an Olympic final you have a good idea of your opposition because you will have seen them racing on the circuit”, he said. “But on the Boat Race day your opposition is an unknown. We wanted to replicate that”.

“It was a pretty positive build-up for us”, agreed Tom James, the Cambridge President who was in the winning crew. “It meant we came to the race fresh and it was a tough race. They kept attacking and attacking and we had to continually fight them off and we never had more than a quarter length of clear water throughout the race”.