Oxford win 2013 Boat Race

Victorious rower Karl Hudspith has praised his team and their opponents for putting on a "real boat race" after his Oxford crew won on the Thames.

Karl was the President of the Oxford University Rowing Club when his team lost in 2012. He took to Twitter to express his frustration that the race was disrupted saying "To Trenton Oldfield; my team went through seven months of hell, this was the culmination of our careers and you took it from us".

He was joined by the current President Alex Davidson in this years crew.

Oxford president Alex Davidson said winning the Boat Race "is probably as good as my life is going to get for a while".

Matthew Pinsent, who umpired the race for the first time, said it had been a "busy but enjoyable experience".

The four-time Olympic rowing champion, who won the race with Oxford in 1990 and 1991, said: "It goes very quickly when you're in charge of umpiring it."

Asked if he had been concerned about security going into the race following last year's incident, he said: "Thankfully, not my responsibility. The ramifications would have been interesting - I would have had to sort out the race if there is an interruption but thankfully nothing happened."

The winning crew finished in 17 minutes and 27 seconds to cut Cambridge's overall lead to 81-77.

Oxford University has won the 2013 Boat Race.

Oxford and Cambridge university crews go head-to-head as the 2013 Boat Race gets underway.

Oxford have emerged as clear favourites to win the Boat Race after more than 70% of bets were placed on the Dark Blues, according to bookmaker William Hill.

Spokesman Joe Crilly said: "Oxford are certainly the best backed crew as of yet, although that was very much the case at this stage of proceedings last year.

"Last year, however, we took nearly £40,000 on the day of the race and Cambridge became best backed by the time the race started. Maybe history will repeat itself this time around."

Royal Marines will patrol the River Thames today to make sure there is no disruption to the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Organisers are trying to stop any repeat of last year when the annual race was stopped by Trenton Oldfield, who swam into the path of the crews.

The race's Executive Director, David Searle, said: "We are taking additional measures this year and have reviewed all of our actions last year in detail.

"The Boat Race course is four and a quarter miles long so we have eight and a half miles of riverbank to manage and monitor.

"What I would say to anybody thinking of disrupting the race is that it's unbelievably dangerous. You risk injuring yourself, the crews and the other people following the race.

"Nobody wants that to happen. This is just a sporting event."