For the Last Time, Oxford-Cambridge Women's Crew Rows One Week Earlier

The 7-km. Boat Race Course from Putney Bridge to
Mortlake, which will include women's races in 2015.

As reported in The New York Times this morning (first page of the sports section) and The BBC today, this weekend the Oxford-Cambridge women's crews will race for the last time in a different location from, and one week before, the men's crews.

The women's race has taken place annually, except for wartime, since 1927. The men's race started 98 years before.

This year a new silver chalice will be awarded to the winner of the women's race, in lieu of a wooden plaque to be consigned to the Boat Race Museum.

Starting in 2015 the women's boats will race before the men's on the traditional seven-kilometer course on the Tideway.

Credit for the equal status for the women's boat race is given to "an American investment bank" - i.e., BNY Mellon, which is the boat race sponsor for the current round of races. (Sponsorship of the Boat Race is negotiated through a complicated system that is sketched in a well-read previous post on this blog.)

For some years, Newton Investment Management -  a women-oriented wealth manager whose parent is BNY Mellon - has sponsored the Oxford-Cambridge women's boat race. Newton's chief executive, Helena Morrissey, has made it a personal goal to achieve parity between the men's and women's boats in the annual Oxford-Cambridge race on the Thames.

More news about the Boat Race is available on the official web site.

• Men's race.
• Women's race.