We've turned it around
In the wake of the closest Boat Race for 50 years, superlatives were only too easy to come by, but after the champagne and celebrations, I caught up with Steve Royle (Oxford Director of Rowing) and Sean Bowden (Oxford's Chief Coach), architects of the Oxford victory.
Ever since the much-fancied Blue Boat of 1993, complete with Olympic Champions Pinsent and Searle, was cruelly demolished by underdogs Cambridge, Oxford have struggled to match the Cambridge system, not least in technical rowing ability.
As Royle admitted, "Seven years of defeat after defeat forced us to examine the reasons behind our failure, in much the way Cambridge did in the early 1990s."
"We moved on, with full-time professional coaches, a new permanent home at Wallingford, and an up-to-date fleet of boats. And there are the little things too, like anti-drag strips on the oar looms, and our Omega-Wave monitoring system".
"This really is a three-year cycle, starting back in 2000, where we broke the sequence. We've put a sustainable programme in place across all the squads that's the equal of anywhere, including Cambridge."
Even with the sorry state of college rowing, exacerbated by the loss of Torpids to the weather, the achievement of Sean Bowden is all the more remarkable. "We were giving away on experience," recalled Bowden.
"Cambridge had six senior internationals, we had to make do with three. If we wanted to win, we had to counter that. We had to go for broke."
Oxford's 'Young Lions', though comparatively inexperienced, produced a row that, although markedly different in technical emphasis to Cambridge's trademark style, was nonetheless devastatingly effective.
As Bowden admits, "We never aimed to look like internationals. We just taught them how to row, the basics first, that we knew would hold up under pressure."
On a day that will be ingrained on the memories of all who watched, Bowden's plans worked out just perfectly.
25th Apr 2002