Cambridge University Claims Top Prize for the First Time in Two Decades

Emerging triumphant from a field of present and former Olympians as well as top crews from colleges and universities around the world, Cambridge University had multiple reasons to be ecstatic about their first-place finish in the Men’s Championship Eight at the Head of the Charles on Sunday.

In Cambridge’s first victory at the Head of the Charles since winning the Champ Eight in 2004. And race marked a double victory of sorts for the Cambridge men, for among the crews they vanquished were their archrivals from Oxford. Cambridge started one spot behind Oxford, passing them during the race, always a satisfying moment during a head race.

“It’s amazing. That’s why you do it. Beating your rivals is the greatest feeling,” Douwe de Graaf, Cambridge’s stroke, said to the Boston Globe.

Sunday was a return to familiar territory for de Graaf, a Harvard alum who rowed in the champ eight at the Head of the Charles for Harvard four times (2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022) before he graduated in 2023.

Leading the way at every checkpoint, Cambridge crossed the finish line in 13:46 seconds, just under three seconds ahead of the second-place Harvard, and nine seconds ahead of the third-place finishers from Dartmouth. Their rivals from Oxford were eighth in Sunday’s race.

The much-heralded all-Olympic boat, rowing under the colors of the Kovan Training Center finished 12^th, 28 seconds behind. Among the eight Olympians in the boat were the Sinkovic brothers of Croatia, and the British pair they beat by half a second in Paris, Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George, both Cambridge graduates as it happens.

“We really went for it. We went hard off the line, and we rode a very high rating at 36 or so and 37,” said Jamie Koven, the two-time U.S. Olympian who put the boat together. “I think we didn’t quite have the fitness, maybe, of some of the other boats out there, but we definitely had a lot of fun.”

As to the race within a race, the HOCR marked the second time Cambridge has defeated Oxford this year, also winning The Boat Race, their annual dual race on the Thames, last spring. The rivalry will resume next April.

“I’m sure now, though, they’re super hungry, so they’re coming for us,” de Graaf said to the Boston Globe, “and we’re going to make sure we’re ready for that.”