11 Apr 2015

NZers among Oxford rowers odds on to win

10:59 pm on 11 April 2015

The Oxford University rowing team is again favourites to win the annual race against Cambridge tomorrow morning.

Oxford and Cambridge compete in the 2015 Women's Reserve Boat Race on the River Thames.

Oxford and Cambridge compete in the 2015 Women's Reserve Boat Race on the River Thames. Photo: AFP

The Oxford team includes Christchurch brothers Sam and James O'Connor.

Sam O'Connor, who's 27, is aiming for his third straight win in the event.

Oxford are three wins short of Cambridge's tally of 81 wins, and are favourites again this year after powering to victory last year by the biggest winning margin since 1973.

Also tomorrow morning, one of the last bastions of gender inequality in sport will end when the Women's Boat Race is held on the same course and same day as the men for the first time in the 87 years they have competed.

The female crews from Oxford and Cambridge will row the same 6.78km course from Putney Bridge to Chiswick Bridge.