Oxford Victorious over Queens University Belfast in Tideway Fixture

Oxford races Queen's University Belfast (Photo: Iain Weir)
The Dark Blues of Oxford University won two decisive victories over their international opponents from Queen's University Belfast on Saturday, further adding to the drama in the lead-up to the Boat Race, with both Cambridge and Oxford looking to be on top form. The Dark Blues, featuring two members of the very successful British U23 squad from Brest, 2010 (including Constantine Louloudis in the 6 seat, and Karl Hudspith in the 5 seat, both of whom took home hardware from the regatta in the 4- and the VIII respectively), and Henley winners George Whittaker and Simon Hislop, won both of the pieces. The first piece ran from Putney to St. Paul's (roughly halfway through the course), and saw QUB taking an early lead only to find the pace a little hot through the second half, eventually falling by 4 lengths to OUBC. For the second piece (from the Chiswick Eyot to Chiswick Bridge), QUB was given a 6 seat advantage to start, but was still unable to hold off the Dark Blues, who prevailed by over 2 lengths, and who, like their rivals at Cambridge, appear to be peaking at just the right time.

The crew from Queen's University included four members of the VIII that took third at the World University Rowing Championships last year (held in Szeged, Hungary): Abdulrahman Mohamed (2), Eoin MacDonhnaill (5), Colin Williamson (7), and Jonathan Mitchell (stroke). Thanks to Iain Weir once again for the fantastic photo of the racing. For more images of the fixture check out his website, and rowingphotography.co.uk. For complete coverage of the Boat Race, see the official website at theboatrace.org.

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