Cambridge pair shrug off cash cut

There is little time for the pair to rest on their oars because they leave for Hazewinkel in Belgium on Friday for Britain's selection trials there next Monday and Tuesday.

"Tonight to celebrate, two days off for the girlfriend and back in a pair with Tom on Tuesday," said West, the champagne sprayed around the winners' podium still dripping from his chin. "I'm going to enjoy those two days! It's important to draw a line under this and then get started for the summer."

James, the Cambridge president, and West, an Olympic gold medallist in 2000, are the two who rebelled against the Olympic training regime, refusing to give up their studies and their chance of a win at their last attempts.

Both were 'fined' with massive reductions in their Lottery grants. The Varsity oarsmen have long been seen as the last of the great amateurs but to row this year cost West close to £10,000 and James only a little less.

Their offence, in Olympic chiefs' minds, was a refusal to move to the national squad's headquarters at Caversham in Berkshire.

James's crime was the lesser only because he was in the final year of a four-year engineering degree course and had little choice but to continue living at university.

Indeed, James will accompany West to Belgium in spite of final examinations starting three days after the trials.

"The training we've done has made us pretty fit but, going into these trials, I have to admit I'm mentally exhausted. Winning helps some but I'm still pretty drained," said James.

He spoke last December of his 'resentment and frustration' at the loss of grant money and university sources say there is a fear that Britain's demands will dissuade future generations of Brits from committing to the Boat Race.

James lost his three previous Boat Races, missing out on the one Cambridge success in five years in 2004. So the pressure on him as president was greater than most, not least because, as the heavier crew, Cambridge were odds-on favourites with the bookmakers.

Yet Oxford, with only one oarsman returning from last year's successful eight, pushed them all the way and lost by little more than a length.

West admitted: "It was a hard way to do it because Oxford did exactly what they had to. They went out hard and pushed it all the way round the bend. We could feel them attacking all the time.

"We'd said we were going to stay in our bubble and ignore them and we did.' Cox Rebecca Dowbiggin, thrown into the hot seat just two weeks earlier, constantly instructed her crew not to panic.

"Trust in your training," bellowed the tiny figure at the back.

Coming under Hammersmith Bridge, Oxford made a final effort to break the Light Blues and Dowbiggin could be heard shouting.

"They're throwing the kitchen sink at it but we're going to resist."

West said that was the point Cambridge knew victory was there for the taking.

"We knew they couldn't keep pushing that hard," he said. "At the Eyot (where Oxford lost the bend advantage of the Surrey side), we could feel them getting tired. Now everything is focused on Beijing and a gold medal."