Canadian women face off in historic Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race

LONDON – Canadians Ashton Brown and Emma Lukasiewicz will face off later this month in the Oxford-Cambridge Women’s Boat Race.

Both Canadians will row in the bow in the March 27 race.

The 27-year-old Brown is a veteran of the race, having competed for Cambridge last year in the 70th edition of the women’s boat race — and the first on the same 6.8-kilometre horseshoe-shaped course the men cover on the River Thames in west London.

Oxford won last year although Cambridge leads the women’ series 41-29.

Born in Lethbridge, Alta., Brown grew up in Calgary. She did her undergraduate degree in economics at Princeton, where she started rowing seriously.

Oxford’s Lukasiewicz, a 24-year-old from Toronto, rowed for Harvard.

On the men’s side, Cambridge will have the heavier crew and include four American rowers. Seeking to end a three-year winless drought in one of England’s oldest sporting events, the Light Blues weighed in at 706 kilograms (1,533 pounds) at the crew announcement Tuesday — 11.8 kg heavier than Oxford.

Only three of Cambridge’s eight rowers are British, with an Austrian joining Americans Luke Juckett, Henry Hoffstot, Ben Ruble and Ali Abbasi, who is of German-U.S. nationality.

Cambridge leads the men’s series 81-79.

The 2016 races are officially called the Cancer Research UK Boat Races.