It was a relief-filled Duncan Holland who stepped back on to dry land after watching his crew narrowly defeat rivals Oxford in the 153rd Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging, this afternoon (Saturday).

“Winning is a bucket-load better than losing, I can tell you,” said head coach Holland, who felt the despair of being a losing coach last year. “This has been day and night for seven months and now I just feel empty. But it’s a whole lot better than last year.”

Although his crew were heavily tipped to win, Holland said he always knew it was going to be “an extremely hard contest”, and so it proved.

“That was an extremely tough race,” he said. “I thought it was doubt for a long, long way.

“I was expecting it to be tough, I didn’t want it to be, but I expected it to be because I rate Oxford – they are the second best rowing club in the world!”

With the Oxford eight holding his Cambridge crew in the initial stages, the coach admitted he was a more than little concerned, before watching his men pull out a “magnificent” effort in the middle stretch of the race that proved decisive.

“I would have liked to get up on them a bit more round the Fulham bend,” he said. “I was seriously worried. It was only once we started to hold them round the Chiswick bend that I felt better.

“Then I thought we were magnificent down the Chiswick stretch. That’s where we won it.”

For Holland the victory was vindication of his late, and somewhat controversial decision to switch coxes just two weeks before the race, replacing Russell Glenn – whose Goldie crew won the reserve race earlier in the afternoon – with Rebecca Dowbiggin.

“We talked about ownership all year,” said Holland. “I kept saying to them, ‘Go and take ownership of it. It’s yours.’ And they did.”