Oxford coxswain Will Denegri refused to blame illness for why the favourites suffered a disappointing loss in the 169th edition of the men’s Boat Race.
Cambridge, whose women secured a seventh successive trophy, were seen as underdogs despite doing the double last season but took the honours on a sunny Easter weekend where the pleasant conditions were in contrast to the discovery, earlier this week, that high levels of E. coli had been found along the course.
E. coli can cause a range of serious infections and other side-effects and rowers were told ahead of the race not to enter the Thames.
As a result, neither winning crew elected to partake in the tradition of throwing their cox into the river, and while Oxford’s seven seat Leonard Jenkins had earlier revealed to the BBC that he and several crewmates had been plagued by what he branded an E. coli-related illness, his cox was more reluctant to directly blame the bacteria.
Denegri said: “This week we’ve had three people who have had to miss sessions because they’ve had stomach bugs, essentially. Whether that’s related to E. coli in the river I don’t know, but it’s certainly not helped our campaign, and it’s a poor excuse.
“It’s not an excuse, but it definitely hasn’t helped our preparation. We obviously had a bit of a messy start, not the start we wanted. We had a great warm-up, nothing went wrong in the warm-up, so maybe that was not something we were expecting.
“It felt like we never quite got on the rhythm we were hoping to go onto, but at the same time it wasn’t terrible. We were doing a decent job. Cambridge I think today were just a quicker group, and that’s hard to take.”
Earlier, Jenkins had told the BBC: “It would have been ideal not to have had so much poo in the water. But that’s not to take away from Cambridge.”
Cambridge triumphed by three and a half boat lengths in a time of 18 minutes and 56 seconds.
They have now won five of the last six editions and had taken a substantial lead by the final push to the finish, Oxford’s only glimmer of hope coming when winning stroke Matt Edge had visibly been pushed to his limit.
The dark blue boat drew closer, but by then Cambridge had rallied behind their ailing team-mate and their earlier advantage proved too much for their rivals to overcome.
Denegri was more willing to acknowledge the role flooding at their Wallingford base played in Oxford’s preparation, which forced them on several occasions to make the trip to the much-further Caversham Lake.
He said: “It’s obviously affected us a lot, especially through February. Caversham Lake is an hour and 10 minutes’ drive from Oxford, so spending two and a half hours on the bus every day has definitely interrupted our training.”
Cambridge, who train at Ely, faced no such challenges nor, as chief coach Rob Baker later confirmed, did they have any illness concerns ahead of Saturday’s showdown.
Following guidance issued to competitors, Baker did insist Ed Bracey – who initially said he might be willing – did not get dunked in the Thames, arranging instead for a bucket of clean water to be dumped on his cox’s head.
Bracey said of the victory: “It was very noisy through the middle of the race and very quiet those last few minutes there, but we got it done. We got it over the line in the end.
“[The pollution news] didn’t really change the way we handled anything to be honest. The stuff we were being advised to do is what we normally do, so it was business as usual.”
Baker, who was not aware of the illness plaguing Oxford, agreed Cambridge’s flood-free Ely HQ – “the best place to train in the country” – was an advantage, and confirmed Edge, who was attended to by medical staff, needed some fuel and warmth after the race but thought his stroke would be “fine”.
Asked about the E. coli controversy that had marred an another otherwise brilliant weekend for Cambridge, he added: “It’s obviously not a great situation. We’d like cleaner waterways and not have such a risk for our athletes.”
Jude Bellingham targets trophy treble after Laureus breakthrough award
Jude Bellingham has targeted a trophy treble on the pitch after picking up silverware at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid.
Bellingham won the World Breakthrough of the Year prize after a stunning start to life at Real Madrid.
The 20-year-old has scored 21 goals since his summer move from Borussia Dortmund, his latest effort being a stunning winner in Sunday’s El Clasico against Barcelona.
Bellingham now hopes to end the season with a LaLiga and Champions League double at Real before heading to Euro 2024 in Germany where England are among the favourites to win the trophy.
Asked what would mean success, Bellingham said: “I think just more trophies really.
“We’re still in with a chance of two with Madrid and obviously the Euros with England. So I think success would be all three.
“It’s been a bit of a crazy week, really. I’m so tired, to be honest. So excuse me if I look it.
“But I’m really proud to win this award and hopefully keep making more memories with Real Madrid and with England in the future.”
Novak Djokovic was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for a record-equalling fifth time after winning the Australian Open, French Open and US Open to lead the way with 24 grand slam men’s singles titles.
“I am incredibly honoured to have won my fifth Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award,” said Djokovic.
“I think back to 2012, when I won it for the first time as a 24-year-old. I am very proud to be here 12 years later, reflecting on a year that brought me and my fans a lot of excitement and success.
“It was thrilling to return to Australia last January and win my 10th title. It is a tournament that is so dear to my heart and set me up for an incredible 12 months.
“I could not have achieved so much success without an incredible team behind me, and inspirational rivals who have always pushed me to be the best version of myself.”
Aitana Bonmati took to the stage twice to collect two awards – the first footballer to win the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year trophy, and also represent the Spain team which won the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
She said: “It is humbling to see the list of previous winners of this award.
“From Serena Williams to Simone Biles, Lindsey Vonn, Naomi Osaka and last year’s winner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, they are all incredible athletes who have not only excelled in their chosen sports, but been incredible role models for younger generations of young women and girls.
“As the first women’s team to win the Laureus, we are proud of our status as pioneers and as a group we are as committed to equality and representation as we are to what we do on the football pitch.”
American gymnast Biles, a three-time winner of Sportswoman of the Year, won the World Comeback of the Year Award.
Biles collected four gold medals at the World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, her first global event since leaving the Tokyo Olympics due to mental health issues and entering a near two-year break from the sport she had dominated.
Other award winners were Rafael Nadal (Sport for Good), Diede de Groot (World Sportsperson of the Year with a disability) and Arisa Trew (World Action Sportsperson of the Year).
:: The 25th Laureus World Sports Awards took place on Monday 22 April in Madrid, celebrating the leading names in sport from across the globe. To find out more, visit www.laureus.com.
Mark Selby ponders walking away from snooker after ‘pathetic’ Crucible loss
Mark Selby has vowed to consider retirement after crashing out of the World Snooker Championship in a “pathetic” 10-6 defeat to qualifier Joe O’Connor.
The four-time former champion finished a dismal season by his own standards on a low note as he failed to claw back a 7-2 overnight deficit against the only debutant in this year’s draw.
Having first questioned his future after a Tour Championship defeat to Gary Wilson earlier this month, Selby admitted something will have to change if he is to continue on the tour next season.
Selby, who has reached a solitary ranking final this season, said: “I will take a long time to think about it over the summer. Away from snooker I’m happy, then when I come to snooker it’s the opposite. It was pathetic from start to finish.”
O’Connor, who grew up idolising Selby and cheered him to three of those previous successes, held his nerve as his opponent – aided by breaks of 112 and 91 – slowly reduced the deficit to 8-5 at the mid-session interval.
Selby threatened to move within two frames when he went 39 points up in the 15th but he left himself too much to do and O’Connor built on a nerveless red down the rail to complete the biggest win of his career.
It marked the first time since 2018 that Selby has lost in the first round, and prompted ‘The Jester from Leicester’ to concede he will not be able to continue without some serious help.
He told the BBC: “I’ll sit down with (my wife) Vicky and see what the options are.
“Obviously it will be a big decision but if I do carry on playing I need help, probably on the mental side of it a little bit more just to go out there and enjoy the game.
“That’s all I want to do, go out there and enjoy it and for me, it’s always sort of life or death; I’ve always been that kind of character, putting too much pressure on myself and trying too hard.”
Shaun Murphy avoided the same fate as he turned a 6-3 overnight advantage into a comfortable 10-5 win over China’s Lyu Haotian.
Murphy punished Lyu from 38 points behind to pinch the opening frame, and was never in danger of surrendering his advantage in the tie, which he eventually polished off with a break of 81.
The 2005 champion told the BBC: “It’s such a relief, it’s so rewarding and pleasing, I haven’t won a match here for a few seasons. I’m delighted to have got that win and (be) in the second round of the tournament.”
Triple world champion Mark Williams edged in front of last year’s surprise semi-finalist Si Jiahui in a high-quality opening session of their first round match.
Williams started the match with a brilliant 142 clearance but Si hit back, and the Welshman had to dig deep to win the final two frames of the session to establish a 5-4 lead ahead of Tuesday’s conclusion.
Stuart Bingham stormed into an impressive three-frame lead to give him a healthy advantage at the end of the first session, leading Gary Wilson 6-3.
Bingham started in tremendous fashion, falling just two points short of an opening-frame century break and he rattled off the next three before Wilson made his mark on the scoreboard.
Bingham responded with a 117 break to go 5-1 up and put daylight between himself and his opponent, who many expected to challenge for the title.
Staring down the barrel of an early exit, Wilson’s session-high 60 break came in the final frame but a missed black helped Bingham swoop and almost clear the table until he himself missed a routine black, which his opponent sunk to reduce the deficit to three.
Emile Cairess dedicates impressive London Marathon display to cousin
Emile Cairess dedicated his stunning run at the London Marathon to his cousin, who was left in a coma after a car crash earlier this year.
Cairess finished third in the second fastest time by a British man in two hours, six minutes and 46 seconds.
The run should rubber-stamp his place Great Britain team for this summer’s Olympics.
But Cairess’ immediate thoughts were with his 22-year-old cousin, Oliver Burton, who is still in hospital but out of intensive care.
“He’s my little cousin, like a little brother to me, and a couple of months ago he was in a bad accident,” said Cairess, 26.
“He was in a coma for about a month and just came out of ICU a few days ago,
“It was so stressful, it was touch and go at some points but he’s made a fantastic recovery in the last couple of weeks.
“This morning I was really emotional. Hopefully I’ve made him proud today.”
Cairess did not even know he was third, behind winner Alexander Munyao of Kenya and 41-year-old Kenenisa Bekele, until about 200m from the finish line.
“I heard it over the tannoy,” he added. ” I passed about four people in the space of a minute around the 39km mark and I thought I’d already passed a few from the front group.
“I was like ‘there can’t be many more left so I must be in a decent position’ but I didn’t know, I could have been sixth or seventh. When I heard I was third it was a great feeling.”
Another Briton, Mahamed Mahamed, finished fourth, making it the first time two home runners have finished in the top four since Kevin Forster and Hugh Jones in 1988.
Mahamed was catching Cairess in the closing stages and although he could not quite overhaul his team-mate, he was still inside the Olympic qualifying time.
“Me and Mahamed have been racing since we were 13, so we’ve always been neck and neck,” said Cairess.
“We’ve always progressed together so it’s fantastic to see him doing so well. A lot of people drop out of the sport but we kept going and it’s paid off for us.”
Munyao managed to shake off veteran Ethopian Bekele, who was bidding for a first London Marathon win some 20 years after he took Olympic 10,000m gold, with around three miles to go.
“At 40km I thought I could win the race,” he said. “It’s the biggest win in my career because it is my first major marathon.
“There was a little fear because I know Bekele is a threat but I was confident over the last few kilometres.”
Before the start of the men’s race and the mass race, tributes were paid to last year’s winner Kelvin Kiptum, who died in a car accident in February.
Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir smashed the women’s-only world record to win a thrilling women’s race.
The Kenyan kicked for home as she turned on to The Mall and won in 2:16.16.
Four runners were in with a shout down the final straight and Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa came in second, ahead of Joyciline Jepkosgel in third with Megertu Alemu fourth.
The previous world record for a women-only race was 2:17.01 by Mary Jepkosgei Keitany in London in 2017.
“I’m so happy for today’s victory,” said Jepchirchir. “I wasn’t expecting to run a world record. I thought there might be one – but I didn’t think it would be me.”
Marcel Hug won a record fourth-consecutive men’s wheelchair race, the Swiss ‘Silver Bullet’, 38, clocking 1:28.33.
Daniel Romanchuk of the United States was second with Britain’s David Weir third in his 25th consecutive London Marathon.
Weir, 44, said: “Keeping up with Marcel for 20 miles, it was one of the best races I’ve done on this course.
“Some of these guys are 10 or 20 years younger than me. But I promised myself I’d come back and get on the podium.”
The women’s wheelchair race was won by a distance by another Swiss, Catherine Debrunner.
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