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Aussie eyes off Kiwis in Boat Race

Australian rower Joshua Hooper will take the number seven spot in the Cambridge crew, which weighed in on Monday at a total of 791.6kg.

An Australian will be rowing against two Kiwis in the annual Boat Race on the Thames, with Cambridge holding a slight weight advantage over defending champions Oxford.

Australian rower Joshua Hooper will take the number seven spot in the Cambridge crew, which weighed in on Monday at a total of 791.6kg, while Oxford bent the scales at 772.6kg.

The former Melbourne Grammar student, who went to Monash University, studies at St Edmund's.

Weighing in at 92kg, Hooper is slightly beefier than his New Zealand rivals in Oxford's dark blue, with number seven Sam O'Connor coming in at 88.8kg and bow Storm Uru weighing 80.4kg.

The 160th edition of the race will be held on April 6, with thousands of spectators expected to line the banks of the River Thames in London.

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Cambridge leads the series with 81 victories to Oxford's 77, with one dead heat in 1877.

Oxford won last year's race with a length-and-a-half victory.

The year before an Australian made headlines for disrupting the race.

Boat pest Trenton Oldfield, originally from Sydney, swam into the path of the competing crews as they raced down the Thames in April 2012 to protest elitism.

He was subsequently jailed for seven weeks. Then, in 2013, the British government unsuccessfully tried to deport the Australian on the grounds his presence wasn't conducive to the public good.

Cambridge coach Steve Trapmore is pleased with the composition of his crew as Cambridge bid to win after last tasting success in the controversial 2012 edition, which featured a restart following Oldfield's intervention.

"The team's come together really well," Trapmore added.

"There's nowhere near the depth of experience that Oxford have, but I'm always confident."

London 2012 bronze medallist Constantine Louloudis, who's in the Dark Blue boat, is bidding for a hat-trick for Oxford.

The 22-year-old stroke won the event in 2011 and 2013, taking a break in 2012 to focus on the Olympics.

"I'd love to get a third win, that'd be awesome," he said.

"You've got to shift your weight and I'm pretty confident we've got enough power in the boat to do the job."

The heaviest crew member will be Oxford president Malcolm Howard, a Canadian Olympic medallist who weighed 108.2kg.


3 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


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