Protester in river halts Oxford-Cambridge race Crew narrowly avoids hitting man swimming in Thames updated 10:40 a.m. MORTLAKE, England - Cambridge won a dramatic edition of the Boat Race against Oxford on Saturday following a 31-minute mid-race postponement after a man jumped into the River Thames and swam between the crews. When the race was restarted halfway along the course, Oxford's German rower Dr. Hanno Wienhausen lost half of his oar after the crews clashed - allowing Cambridge to cruise to victory up against effectively seven opponents. The last time the race had to be restarted was in 2001 when there was a clash of blades and an oar was lost by one of the crews. At the end of the race, Oxford cox Zoe De Toledo appealed for the race to be rerun because there was too much wash on the course after the postponement, but her appeal was turned down by the race umpire.