Oxford should be confident.

Earlier today, a German eight with five gold medal Olympians from London 2012 and three other Olympians plus an U23 silver medalist raced against Oxford’s Blue Boat on the Thames. The Dark Blues, racing in an eight named after Acer Nethercott, the former Oxford Blue and Olympic cox who passed away on 26 January, also had some Olympians in their crew, Canadian Malcolm Howard and Constantine Louloudis, rowing for Great Britain. The Dark Blue beat the German crew, which led The Times rowing correspondent Patrick Kidd to write a tweet saying that Oxford University look like favourites for the Boat Race on 31 March. In another tweet, Kidd also writes that Cambridge won their final pre-Boat Race fixtures against Molesey on Saturday.

Read a report about today’s two races on the Thames here. Read tweets here.