Dark Blues storm to Boat Race victory

The dark blues, who chose the Surrey side of the river after winning the toss, started quickly and never trailed, pushing hard to shake off a lighter but tenacious Cambridge crew, taking victory in a time of 17 minutes and 28 seconds.

Oxford completed a clean sweep of Cambridge after the women took the Women's Boat Race at Dorney Lake and the Isis crew beat Goldie by one-third of a  length earlier in the day.

In the Men's Boat Race on Sunday Oxford took an early lead but fought hard to stay ahead of Cambridge until after the Surrey bend, pulling ahead and finding clear water in a final push after interweaving oars and several warnings from race umpire Sir Matthew Pinsent. By Barnes bridge, coach Sean Bowden’s men were two lengths ahead and never looked back, taking Oxford’s ninth win out of the last 14 Boat Races.

'It was fun, tough but that was what we expected. We had a plan and we stuck to it ruthlessly,' said Oxford cox Oskar Zorrilla.

Oxford's Constantine Louloudis, who won the race in 2011 and was part of the Great Britain crew who won bronze at London 2012, said: 'It was a heck of a race. We fancied our chances but Cambridge made it very difficult for us, we had to push hard.'

Oxford crew: Patrick Close (GB), Geordie MacLeod (GB), Alexander Davidson (GB), Samuel O’Connor (NZ), Paul Bennett GB), Karl Hudspith (GB), Constantine Louloudis (GB), Malcolm Howard (CAN), Oskar Zorrilla (USA/COL).

The 2013 Boat Race was sponsored by BNY Mellon.