Words: Tom Ransley. Images: Benedict Tufnell / the Boat Race

The Oxford and Cambridge head coaches have announced their respective Blue Boat crews ahead of The CHANEL J12 Boat Race on Sunday 13 April 2025. The Crew Announcement was held at Battersea Power Station and open to the public.

Elevating proceedings with his customary wit, the BBC’s Andrew Cotter entertained the audience, filling the balconies inside the iconic London location. Cotter will be the lead commentator come race day.

BRCL chair Siobhan Cassidy gave a warm welcome to the guests. She was followed on the stage by this year’s umpires, Sarah Winckless MBE and Sir Matthew Pinsent, who spoke about the role of umpiring a Boat Race. Winckless will be the first woman to umpire the Men’s Boat Race on The Championship Course.

And then it was time for the student-athletes to enjoy their moment in the limelight.

From Olympic champions to those who had learnt to row at their college boat clubs, the rowers descended to the stage via paired escalators, arriving alongside their opposite number. They were introduced by Andrew Cotter, took the audience’s applause, and then exchanged a surly handshake. Of the two men’s Blue Boats, Cambridge was the heavier. The women opted not to be weighed in.

Of the 36 named athletes who travelled the escalators, 21 were British and the rest represent Australia, USA, Germany, France, South Africa, Italy, New Zealand and the Czech Republic amongst others. Cambridge’s stroke woman, Samy Morton, boosts the nationality count by three, heralding from Australia, Sweden and Mexico.

A look at the crews

Daniel Orton takes the reins of the Oxford women’s Blue Boat. He proved himself against last year’s cox, Joe Gellett, who will likely feature in the Women’s Reserve Race. The Latymerian cut his teeth on the Tideway and is likely be a tough customer for his opposite number. South African Jack Nicholas will cox the Cambridge women. He learnt to row at Pembroke College Boat Club and is a relatively recent addition to the Light Blue line-up.

Orton’s oarswomen are determined to end Cambridge’s winning streak. If successful they will be the first Oxford women’s Blue Boat to taste victory since 2016. They have three returning Blues to help them: Tessa Haining, Sarah Marshall, and their president Annie Anezakis.

In the Cambridge camp, the 22-year-old medical student, Carys Earl, who learnt to row at her Cambridge college (Gonville and Caius), is one of two returning Blues. “Every session has to count,” said the 2024 Boat Race winner. “Coming into the season you’ve no idea who you’ll be up against. There’s been a lot of seat racing, but it’s incredibly exciting to know I will race The Boat Race again.”

Gemma King, the other returning Blue for Cambridge, won the Boat Race last year. She has a wealth of experience having first competed for the Light Blue lightweights in 2019 and later enjoyed successful stints in the reserve boat, Blondie. Katy Hempson makes the bow seat with the same lightweights and reserve crew experience as Gemma.

Olympic pulling power comes in the form of Oxford’s strokewoman Heidi Long and Cambridge’s six-seat Claire Collins, who are longstanding rivals to the extent.

they were born on the same day. They faced off against each other in the women’s eights at last summer’s Paris Olympics. Long won a bronze medal for Team GB and Collins, racing for the US, finished fifth. Another Boat Race athlete with Paris experience is Morton, who was the spare for the Australian team.

British athletes Kyra Delray and Tash Morrice have world-medal-winning pedigree and will make their Boat Race debuts in opposing teams. Cambridge’s Morrice, who won silver at the 2023 European Championships, will race in the seven seat. Having undergone hip surgery last summer, her opposite number, Delray, is relieved to be race ready. “I’m so excited,” said Delray. “The nine of us have so much fun rowing together. I’m pumped to spend the remaining weeks figuring out how much faster we can go.”

On the men’s side there are a raft of new faces, and not just among the rowers. For Oxford this will be their first Boat Race in almost three decades without the legendary coach Sean Bowden. Bowden’s successor, Mark Fangen-Hall, has inherited an enviable array of top-quality oarsmen from which to select.

Oxford’s stern three are especially strong. Italy’s Niko Kohl, who finished fourth in the men’s four at the Paris Olympics, is set to stroke. He will be supported by USA Olympic medallist Nick Rusher, and their president, Tom Mackintosh, the Tokyo men’s eight Olympic champion, who will sit at six. The middle pair are returning Blues; Great Britain’s James Doran, and Germany’s seven-time national champion, Tassilo von Mueller, who was the Oxford men’s president in 2023.

“It’s definitely not guaranteed,” said Doran of Oxford’s cut-throat selection. “Winning is the by-product of doing everything well.” The towering 6’ 5” Oxford oarsman isn’t thinking about race day just yet; he’s focused on making daily improvements to the crew’s boat speed. And his motivation for a third consecutive campaign? “I love the club, I love the people, and the race is very special.”

Sydney Rowing Club’s side-switching Aussie, Will O’Connell, prevailed over stiff competition from the likes of 2024 Blue, Saxon Stacey. Behind O’Connell is bowman Tom Sharrock who raced in Isis last year, and in Oxford’s Blue Boat the year before that. “Every year you care more and more about the race. I’ve lost two races in a row, but I can imagine how it will feel when I win this one,” said a confident Sharrock. “It will be so worth it.”

Oxford’s Blue Boat has the potential to be one of their all-time quickest. Simon Hatcher, Cambridge’s bowman, is respectfully undaunted. “Oxford are a fantastic squad. They have a lot of amazing talent, and they are going to be a dynamic crew to race against. Absolutely nothing is written. We lean into our own training every single day, we lean into trusting each other, trusting our training plan, and trusting our process. That’s what will carry us to the finish line.”

Fans of the Light Blues will draw confidence from the early season results. Cambridge beat Oxford (and everyone else) to win the 2024 Head Of The Charles Regatta in Boston with a line-up not dissimilar to the one their coach, Rob Baker, announced at Battersea Power Station. Latterly, the Light Blues have dismantled a Dutch eight and a composite of internationals including Spanish, Croatian and British Olympians.

Leading the charge is Cambridge men’s president Luca Ferraro, this will be his fifth Boat Race campaign. Ferraro is one of two returning Blues in the Cambridge crew, the other is Frenchman Noam Mouelle, who first took to rowing in western suburbs of Paris.

The newcomers are no slouches either. James Robson was the British spare at the Paris Olympics, and George Bourne narrowly missed Olympic qualification in the men’s single scull. Three-time Goldie cox and former Cambridge men’s president, Ollie Boyne, makes the Blue Boat on the fourth time of asking. In front of him, and setting the rhythm, will be strokeman extraordinaire Douwe de Graaf.

It’s been a tough Boat Race campaign for both camps, but the finish line is in sight.

“I will look back on this as a formative moment,” said Hatcher. “I’ve gone through the challenges with amazing teammates on my side, with whom I am sure I have formed bonds that will last a lifetime. And that’s, perhaps, the biggest win of all.”

What next?

Before the big dance there is one more race opportunity.

This weekend marks the conclusion of the Official Media Fixture Series. It’s Oxford’s turn to race in front of the press; their women will face Leander, and their men go side by side with London Rowing Club. Watch from the riverbank or tune in to our live stream on TheBoatRace.org on Saturday 29 March.