CAMBRIDGE PRODUCE PREPARATION SURPRISE

Duncan Holland, coach to the Cambridge University Boat Race squad, has sprung a final preparation surprise for this year’s Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging, in announcing today that the Light Blues will race in this year’s Head of the River Race on March 31st - just seven days before The Race itself.

Coach Holland is to enter a “Blue Boat” line-up and a reserve crew for the event which takes place on the Thames between Mortlake and Putney (the reverse of the Boat Race course). Entries for the event normally include leading British club crews as well as international eights.

“Every crew is different and we believe this crew will benefit from racing on the Tideway”, said Holland. “Racing, and in particular racing on the Tideway, is always useful”.

The move breaks with Cambridge’s more recent traditions of preparing in Nottingham before moving to the Thames for the final week before The Race. Cambridge have not entered a crew in the Head of the River Race since 1991.

Cambridge will start this year’s Race, the 153rd in the series, as heavy “on-paper” favourites. Holland has already dismissed the pressure by saying: “Sport is a series of contests where the outcome is, by nature, uncertain. I’m confident that we will perform well, but is that enough to win? We’ll see”.

Cambridge lead the overall series since 1829 by 78-73 with one dead-heat. Their eight for the Head of the River Race is likely to feature world champions Thorsten Engelmann and Sebastian Schulte from Germany as well as 2000 Olympic champion Kieran West and GB international Tom James but will not be finalised until a later date.

The official announcement of the 2007 Boat Race crews will take place on the morning of March 12th in London at a press conference. At this press conference Tom James, this year’s Cambridge President, will challenge Oxford to race as part of the formal and traditional “Challenge”. The Boat Race this year is on April 7th at 4.30pm.