Who is the swimmer who stopped the boat race

The reason for his collapse remains unknown. Protester Trenton Oldfield, who studied contemporary urbanism at the London School of Economics, claimed responsibility for the stunt on a blog entitled Elitism Leads To Tyranny. After being hauled out of the water by police, he was arrested and taken to a police station, where he was charged with a public order offense and bailed to appear in court on April This was the th running of one of England's oldest sporting rivalries between two of the country's leading universities.

In other eventful Boat Races, five American athletes in the Oxford squad refused to row for coach Dan Topolski or president Donald Macdonald in following disagreements over selection and training methods. The Dark Blues had to rely on oarsmen from the reserve team to make up the numbers but still won. Boats sank in the , , and editions. In that race, which was staged in a gale, Judge Archibald Levin Smith — who couldn't swim — remained alone in the boat until the water reportedly reached his neck before he was rescued.

The combination of freak events in this year's race were played out in front an estimated , spectators who lined the river bank to watch what was building up to be one of the tightest in years. Garrett was alerted by assistant umpire Matthew Pinsent — a winner of four Olympic rowing gold medals — who spotted Oldfield's head bobbing in the water. Cambridge takes the crown from Oxford in a dramatic th Boat Race which was forced to restart after being halted by a man swimming in the Thames.

It is the first time in its history that the event has been disrupted by a swimmer, organisers said. The crews were forced to stop The crews were neck and neck when the man brought the four-and-a-quarter mile race to a standstill.

The swimmer was picked up by a lifeboat and brought ashore, shortly after the boats were halted. After almost half an hour the race restarted but Oxford suffered another setback when a member of the team broke an oar — leaving Cambridge powering to victory. A rower at the back of the Oxford boat was removed from the vessel after he collapsed at the end of the race.

The th Boat Race on April 7 was labelled "possibly the most dramatic in history" by organisers after Oldfield created unprecedented disruption. It was the first time in its history that the event was disrupted by a swimmer. This year's contest also saw an Oxford crew member break an oar and the team's bowman Alex Woods collapse after crossing the finishing line.

He was later treated in hospital. Oldfield sparked scenes of chaos when he swam towards the boats as they were neck and neck between the two and three-mile marker. Former rower and assistant umpire Sir Matthew Pinsent was said to have alerted fellow adjudicators before the race was stopped and the swimmer, who narrowly avoided the blade of an Oxford oar, was pulled from the river.

He was taken away on a police launch and arrested. The race was restarted nearly half an hour later, with Cambridge powering on to victory. Oldfield, who lives in a run-down block of flats in Myrdle Street, east London, later defended his anti-elitist stance online, claiming he had always "fought from within".

The demonstrator posted a series of messages the day after the race saying: "With the severe deficit in democracy new sites of protest unfortunately have had to be found" and "if its jail time, so be it".