Oxford rower needs a new winners’ medal after losing it in the Thames during Boat Race celebrations

Victorious Oxford crew member James Cook will have to be presented with a new winners’ medal after post-race celebrations saw the one he had just been awarded swallowed up by the Thames.

Cook, the older of the two brothers in the victorious Oxford boat in yesterday’s captivating 163rd edition of the race on the Tideway, lost his medal after jumping into the river after their victory over Cambridge.

“As brothers, we don’t win too much, but now I’ve won a medal and the Thames has already reclaimed it,” he said.

The incident meant the last laugh was on James — a veteran of three races — who had vowed to scupper brother Oliver’s plans to join a GB Rowing Team training camp in Portugal this morning just hours after celebrating victory. He had joked: “I’m going to make sure he misses the flight. That’s my job.”

Of the race, he added: “We knew we were up against a very fast Cambridge crew, that there were some very fast rowers in that boat.

“It was hard work. Seriously, the first moment I knew we’d won was when Olivier Siegelaar in front of me punched the water as we crossed the line.”

The result meant four wins in the past five years for the Dark Blues.