Oxford won the 149th Boat Race by just one foot in a time of 18:06. The winning distance over Cambridge was equivalent to a mere 0.05 of a second.

The Race is felt to be the closest of all time because in 1877, the only official previous dead heat, boat alignment and finish judging were not as sophisticated as in more recent times.

Oxford also set a Boat Race precedent by winning even though they were more than a stone a man lighter than the opposition.

There were also two sets of brothers in the Race for the first time. James Livingston and Ben Smith competed for Cambridge whilst Matt Smith and David Livingston were in the victorious Oxford line-up.

For a while at the finish both crews sat stunned waiting to find out who had won.

"At the end my body had completey gone. I was numb", said a devastated James Livingston. "I just sat there and I didn’t know who had won or lost. Then I heard the umpire call a win to Oxford by one foot. It was unbelievable.

"It was just an amazing race", said Matt Smith. "I thought we were going to win from stroke one. I had total belief in this crew. It feels fantastic and I think it will take a while to top this feeling".

He was concerned, though, for his younger brother Ben who needed medical attention at the finish. Ben, 19, was called in to the Cambridge crew on Friday after a dramatic collision on the Tideway resulted in Canadian Wayne Pommen fracturing his wrist.

Both coxes contested the course fiercely and umpire Boris Rankov was kept busy all the way through the historic 4 miles and 374 yards from Putney to Mortlake.

Cambridge won the toss today and decided to row on the Surrey station. "It was a great event for the sport", was the only consolation Cambridge President Tim Wooge could draw from the occasion.

"I take my hat off to Oxford. We did most of the things we wanted to do. We were quite a long distance behind and it was a gutsy row from Hammersmith but we couldn’t have gone any faster in the last two or three minutes of the Race".