Oxford vs. Cambridge

Harrison and Stafford ready for Boat Race

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23/03/2009

by Richard Klein

The 155th Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat race is less than a week away, taking place on Saturday March 29. The race is held on the London Thames River and traverses 4.25 miles of hard-to-navigate water due to its current and bends. But taking part in The Boat Race is not your ordinary university rowing programme.

Silas Stafford, stroke of the Cambridge University Light Blue crew, and Benjamin Harrison, 4-man of the Oxford University Dark Blue crew, share with World Rowing how they juggle with academics and preparation for The Boat Race.

The balance of academics and rowing “is really tough, 12 practices a week,” explains Oxford’s Harrison. “If you include drive time, it’s about 50 hours a week. I leave at 6:40 in the morning, get back around 9, then lecture, and then leave again around 1:30 pm for practice. I wish I had 10 more hours a day.”

The Boat Race is a unique style of preparation and racing. “Everything comes down to one race,” explains Stafford. “There are no heats, semis, finals, and there is no season of racing. You really have to do everything you possibly can to prepare to beat the other crew, on the day. You get some opportunities like fixtures to practice. But you never get a full-blown opportunity like in 2k’s.”

Harrison has a similar perspective: “The unique thing about this race is that being really good is helpful, but all that really is important is being better than Cambridge, and you don’t really know how good the other crew is until you get into the race. We don’t race any of the same crews.”

The preparation for such a race is a long process and starts in the month of September with testing on the ergometer and continues into the long English winter, where the final selection process begins to take place.

“In the winter it’s freezing cold, it’s windy, it’s wet, you’re sick…the long days are difficult,” says Harrison.

Stafford describes how tough the training at Cambridge could get: “We did a pairs matrix one day, and the next day a bunch of seat racing in fours. It’s really hard psychologically to get pumped for ten pieces. Physically your legs are completely shot, you can barely walk, and you’re on the water all day.”

There are no secrets to winning for either crew; both teams have to train in all conditions and put in the necessary hours of work. But the crews do seem to take slightly different approaches on how to handle all the crowds and media on race day.

“We prepare a lot, in all our visualisations,” explains Stafford. “We’ll describe what’s going to be there, how many people are going to be there, where the JumboTrons [big screens] are going to be... Before the Boat Race we’re going to take a jog through the crowd to see it, to feel it, and to be comfortable with it as opposed to being afraid of it.”

Harrison mentions how Oxford is getting set to face the media and the crowds: “We have talked about it, there is going to be a lot going on. There are helicopters, people everywhere, boats, it’s something different. But at the same time everyone in the boat is experienced with dealing with that kind of stuff. I think it’s something we’ll be able to deal with fine, but it is something we are definitely aware of.”

Both crews will be going into the race with a positive outlook, because believing you can succeed is half the battle. “On paper Oxford is much stronger then we are,” acknowledges Stafford. “They have five Olympians in their boat, which is a pretty big standard. Our resumes aren’t nearly as good as theirs. But I really think we do believe that we can beat them, and I think that we are going to beat them.”

Harrison on the same topic says: “I hope we win, and I think we are going to win. We are extremely well-prepared, but that being said, I think this year’s Cambridge boat is quite good, so it’s going to be a huge challenge for us to win.”

Benjamin Harrison is weighing in as the heaviest competitor at this year’s Boat Race at 106.4 kg, while Silas Stafford is weighing in at 97.2 kg.

Follow this year’s Boat Race on www.theboatrace.org