Oxford-Cambridge 2012, a strange boat race

Cambridge won a dramatic Boat Race against Oxford on Saturday following a 31-minute mid-race postponement after a man jumped into the River Thames and swam between the crews, a stunt that provokes security concerns ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games. When the race was restarted halfway along the course,an Oxford rower lost half of his oar after the crews clashed allowing Cambridge to cruise to victory over effectively seven oarsmen. A margin of victory wasn't given by officials. That Oxford bow man required medical attention after appearing to collapse after the race, reportedly because of exhaustion. Wearing a wetsuit, the intruder who caused the restart, plunged into the Thames at the Surrey bend stage of the race, with around one-and-a-half miles left in the four-and-a-quarter mile course. As the two boats approached him, he ducked his head under the water narrowly avoiding the oars of the Oxford crew. The man resurfaced, with a big smile across his face, and was picked up by a police boat. Once on dry land, he was led away, wrapped in a red blanket. Oxford were slightly ahead at the time of the postponement. "I saw a head," said Cambridge's American oarsman Steve Dudek. "I looked over and thought they had lost a guy [out of the Oxford boat]. Our cox immediately said 'stop'." The race was restarted from Hammersmith Bridge, around the 2-mile point. The last time the race had to be restarted was in 2001 when there was a clash of blades and an oar was lost by one of the crews. The fact that Cambridge extended its lead in the overall series to 81-76 will be lost in all the drama of the 158th running of one of England's oldest and most prestigious sporting fixtures.