“We went through seven months of hell and you wrecked it”: Fury at protestor who tried to derail Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
A protester sparked fury yesterday by deliberately swimming into the paths of the crews in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.
Environmental campaigner Trenton Oldfield was hauled from the water and arrested on public order offences after his actions halted the prestigious event for half an hour.
Last night, the president of the Oxford University Boat Club angrily told Oldfield via Twitter: “My team went through seven months of hell. This was the culmination of our careers and you took it from us”
The university crews were almost neck-and-neck when they were forced to stop after the blades of the Oxford team’s oars narrowly missed Oldfield.
A police officer said later: “They nearly took his head off”
Incredibly, it was not the only drama to affect the 158th boat race.
After the event restarted – the first time a restart has been required for 11 years – an Oxford oar snapped when blades from the two teams tangled, allowing Cambridge to cruise to victory.
Then, at the finish line, a member of the Oxford crew collapsed in the boat and had to be taken to hospital.
The crews had set off normally enough at Putney Bridge, South-West London, a little after the scheduled start time of 2.15pm.
More than nine minutes into the race – halfway along the four-and-a-quarter-mile course, near Hammersmith Bridge – former Olympic rower and race official Sir Matthew Pinsent spotted Oldfield in the water. Wearing a wetsuit, the bearded Australian had plunged into the Thames at the Surrey Bend stage of the race, apparently in a protest to highlight his unorthodox political views.
Witness Jonathan Finlan, an art dealer of Hyde Park, London, said: “I think he must have got there early and stayed lurking in the water, because we never saw him swim out from the riverbank”.
Oxford crew member William Zeng used Twitter to send the protester a series of emotional messages after the race.
Mr Zeng, a doctorate student at Oriel College, tweeted: “When I missed your head with my blade I knew only that you were a swimmer, and if you say you are a protester then no matter what you say your cause may be, your action speaks too loudly for me to hear you. I know exactly what you were protesting. You were protesting the right of 17 young men and one woman to compete fairly and honorably, to demonstrate their hard work and desire in a proud tradition. You were protesting their right to devote years of their lives, their friendships, and their souls to the fair pursuits of the joys and the hardships of sport. You, who would make a mockery of their dedication and their courage, are a mockery of a man”.
Frustratingly for Oxford, they were enjoying a marginal advantage when race umpir John Garrett brought the event to a standstill.
As Oldfield resurfaced, smiling broadly, he was picked up by a police boat. Once on dry land, he was led away off Chiswick pier, wrapped in a red blanket.
Onlookers booed and shouted “Take him to the Tower!” and “Is that David Walliams?” – a reference to the comedian who swam the Thames last year for charity.
Police later said Oldfield was being detained at a West London police station on suspicion of a Section 5 public order offence, namely behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
Describing the drama, Cambridge rower Steve Dudek said: “I saw a head. I looked over and thought they had lost a guy out of Oxford’s boat. Our cox immediately said, “Stop!” ’
Oxford cox Zoe de Toledo was also forced to take drastic action – quickly alerting her crew to the danger ahead.
Explaining the decision to interrupt the race, Sir Matthew said the swimmer had risked serious injury.
“It’s not ideal but what could we do? We could not have carried on” he said.
In the other incidents, the blade of Oxford’s German rower Dr Hanno Wienhausen broke after the crews’ oars clashed. The Oxford crew member who collapsed was Dr Alexander Woods. The 27-year-old Pembroke College medical student was lifted from his seat by medics.
Apparently suffering from exhaustion, he was conscious, but was taken to hospital. He was said to be in a stable condition.
At the end of the race, a clearly upset Ms Toledo appealed for the race to be rerun because there was too much wash on the course after the postponement. Her appeal was turned down by the umpire.
The 2012 race is the first to be disrupted by a swimmer. The last time it had to be restarted was in 2001 when there was a clash of blades and an oar was lost.
In further reaction, television presenter Richard Madeley tweeted: “God, the monumental ego and selfishness of the swimmer who screwed the Boat Race. Imagine sharing living space with someone like that”.
Zoe de Toledo alerted her crew to the presence of protester Trenton Oldfield when he was just yards from their oars. Footage appeared to show Zoe calling out to the rowers, who were unable to see the man in the Thames.
Zoe, who is studying for an MSc in criminal justice at Oxford, was the only woman in yesterday’s chaotic race.
Zoe was educated at fee-paying St Paul’s Girls’ School in London, where she first took up rowing. Last year she coxed Britain’s women’s eight team, who finished fourth in the European Rowing Championships. She also won a gold medal at the 2009 World under-23 Championships and a bronze in the 2005 World Junior Championships.
The quick-witted Oxford cox at the centre of yesterday’s drama appeared in the Oscar-winning film The Social Network.
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