Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/The Boat Race 2012

The Boat Race 2012

This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 11, 2015 by — Crisco 1492 (talk) 11:19, 25 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The 158th Boat Race, an annual side-by-side rowing race between crews from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames, took place on 7 April 2012. Despite Cambridge having the heavier crew, Oxford (pictured after the race) were pre-race favourites after a successful preparation period, including a victory over Leander. Cambridge won the toss and chose to start on the Surrey side of the river. Partway through, with the boats level, the race was temporarily halted to avoid injury to a protester, Trenton Oldfield, who swam in front of the two crews. After the race was restarted, one of the Oxford crew suffered irreparable damage to his blade following a clash of oars with the Cambridge boat, ending Oxford's chances of victory. The race was eventually won by Cambridge by four-and-a-quarter lengths, in a consolidated time of 17 minutes 23 seconds. Immediately after completing the race, a member of the Oxford crew collapsed, but later recovered. Oldfield was later jailed for six months for causing a public nuisance, and as a result of the disruption, security for subsequent Boat Races was increased. (Full article...)

Most recent similar article(s): No rowing-related articles in the last few years (nothing since Jesus College Boat Club (Oxford) in May 2010); last TFA on a particular sporting event was 1924 Rose Bowl on 1st January 2015.
Main editors: The Rambling Man
Promoted: 23 August 2014
Reasons for nomination: Nominated to run on the date of the 2015 race.
Support as nominator. Bencherlite ^Talk 22:48, 25 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support as main editor. The Rambling Man (talk) 13:28, 26 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support – SchroCat (talk) 12:13, 1 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support - sports event will raise interest. Cool. Montanabw ^(talk) 08:21, 8 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support One down, 160 to go. Hawkeye7 (talk) 00:43, 22 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]