Cambridge Lightweight & Veterans Crews Triumph in Testing Tideway Conditions

The 2026 Lightweight Boat Races delivered drama from the first stroke, as crews from both universities faced a turbulent Tideway on a grey, blustery afternoon. With choppy water and shifting winds, the river threw everything it had at the athletes, but they rose brilliantly to the challenge.

Cambridge won the coin toss for the Women’s Race and selected the Surrey station, while Oxford won the Men’s toss and likewise opted for Surrey.

In the Women’s Lightweight Boat Race, Cambridge showed remarkable composure. Although they went down off the start, their strong base rhythm soon shone. Settling confidently into the conditions, they surged through and continued to build their advantage, crossing the line 35 seconds ahead to claim an exceptional seventh consecutive victory.

The Men’s Lightweight Race opened with an explosive start from Cambridge, who established clear water coming off the Middlesex bend. From there they controlled the race impeccably, stretching away to secure a seven length victory, making it five wins in a row for the Cambridge Men.

It was equally impressive to see composed performances from our Veterans crews. Congratulations to the Cambridge Men for an impressive come-from-behind win, and to the Cambridge Women for their hard-fought victory by one length.

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Men’s Lightweights

Seat	Name	College	Course	Nationality
Cox	Alex Taylor	Clare	Masters in Engineering	British
Stroke	Archie Smith	Kings	BA in Mathematics	British
7	James Richards	Girton	Engineering BA and MEng	British
6	Frederick Challacombe	St Catharine’s	Medicine	British
5	Josh Moore (President)	Queens’	MPhil in Literature, Culture and Thought	British
4	Nikita Mohr	Peterhouse	MPhil in Molecular Mechanisms of Human Disease	German
3	Peter Crossley	Sidney Sussex	Engineering BA and MEng	British, American
2	Jeremy Wilkinson	Churchill	PhD in Particle Physics	South African, German, Irish
Bow	Victor Viennot-Bourgin	Darwin	MPhil in Nulcear Energy	French

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Women’s Lightweights

Seat	Name	College	Course	Nationality
Cox	Lidya Acar	Wolfson	MPhil in Digital Humanities	American, Turkish
Stroke	Bella Munro	Peterhouse	BA History	British
7	Hannah Major	Pembroke	BA in Medical Sciences	British
6	Helena Olandi (President)	Hughes Hall	Medicine	Italian, British, Canadian
5	Jay Manson-Whitton	Peterhouse	Maths Part III (Mmath)	British
4	Zara Bek	Trinity	BA Classics	British
3	Olivia Wright	Emmanuel	BA in Biological Natural Sciences	British
2	Hannah Warren	Jesus	PhD in Chemistry	British
Bow	Lauren Allegretti	Lucy Cavendish	PhD Clinical Neuroscience	American

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Men’s Veterans

Bow Stephen Peel
2 Charlie Palmer 
3 Rob Weitemeyer 
4 Sam Brooks
5 Florian Herbst 
6 Henry Pelly
7 Tom Middleton
Stroke Rod Chisholm
Cox Henry Fieldman

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Women’s Veterans

Bow Jen Wainer
2 Linda Dennis
3 Anna van Leemputten 
4 Cath Bishop
5 Ruth Naylor
6 Liv Coffey
7 Grace Prendergast
Stroke Alex Courage
Cox Emily Insanally