A Dutchman and an American - who were directly opposed to each other in the Blue Boat 5 seats in the 2009 Race - will lead their crews into next year's Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging.
Sjoerd Hamburger from Utrecht and Deaglan McEachern from Portsmouth, New Hampshire - both aged 26 - have been appointed Presidents of Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Clubs respectively for the 2009/2010 season.
The tall Dutchman is the first non-native English-speaker to be elected to the role. This year, he became only the second Dutch rower to compete in the Boat Race and generated a huge amount of media coverage in Holland ¬ even attracting around 150 supporters over for the event. A former single sculler who was one of the tallest ever to take part in the Race at 6' 9" (2.05m), he is reading Educational Research Methodology at Oriel College.
"It is a great honour for me to be elected President of Oxford and I am very proud," said Sjoerd. "I think it's a great job and I'm really looking forward to it."
History student Deaglan McEachern will lead the Cambridge effort to win the Boat Race for the first time in three years. He is a former US sculls champion who took bronze medals at the 2007 Pan-American Games.
"I'm looking forward to preparing the Cambridge squad so that we can secure our 80th victory and, having lost to Sjoerd in my first Boat Race, it's great to have another opportunity to come up against him again," said Deaglan.
Deaglan, who briefly worked on Barack Obama's Presidential campaign team in 2008, is in his second year of studying History at Hughes Hall and is the first student from the College to be elected to the prestigous post. The last American to be President of Cambridge was Ethan Ayer in 1997.
The last time both Presidents were foreigners was in 2004, when Canadian Wayne Pommen (CUBC) went up against Australian Sam McLennan (OUBC). Cambridge went on to win the historic 150th Race that year by 6 lengths.
The 156th Boat Race will take place at 16:30 on Saturday, 3 April 2010. The total of Boat Race wins stands at 79 for Cambridge and 75 for Oxford, with a dead-heat declared in 1877.
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