page_title: The Boat Race 2009
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: The Boat Race 2009 / Race
caption_attribution_description: English: The BNY Mellon Boat Race 2015 - Boris Rankov, umpire of the men main race.
context_page_description: The 155th Boat Race took place on 29 March 2009. Oxford's crew was the heaviest in the event's history and which featured five Olympic rowers, including silver medallist Colin Smith and bronze medallist George Bridgewater. Cambridge took an early lead, only to be caught and overtaken by Oxford, who won the race by ​3 ¹⁄₂ lengths.
  In the reserve race, Cambridge's Goldie defeated Oxford's Isis, while Oxford won the Women's Boat Race.
context_section_description: Cambridge won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station.  Cambridge's cox Dowbiggin raised her hand to indicate that she was not ready to start just as Umpire Boris Rankov started the race.  This allowed Oxford the initiative and they took an early lead.  Cambridge slowly edged their way back into contention, and held a half-a-length lead at the two-mile mark.  At St Paul's School, Cambridge were two-thirds of a length ahead before a series of oar clashes and umpire warnings forced the boats apart.  A larger clash, between Cambridge's Monaghan and Oxford's Smith, took place by Chiswick Eyot before Oxford made the better recovery and quickly pushed out to secure a clear-water lead.  Cambridge failed to threaten, and Oxford won by ​3 ¹⁄₂ lengths.
  In the reserve race, Isis defeated Goldie by four lengths, completing the race in a time of 17 minutes 24 seconds, for their second consecutive win. Oxford won the Women's Boat Race by ​1 ¹⁄₄ lengths, hosted at Henley on 22 March 2014.
caption: Boris Rankov (pictured in 2015) was the race umpire.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 60D", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2015:04:19 22:49:38", "Image Artist": "Wikimedia UK", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "914", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "18378", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2500", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:04:11 15:45:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:04:11 15:45:04", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "352741/31250", "EXIF ApertureValue": "86797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "35/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "42", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "42", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "Wikimedia UK", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2781424781", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[55, 250, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "00003defd0"}