Thomas loses his oar during Great Race clash | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

Hawke's Bay's Giacomo Thomas was involved in a clash of oars during rowing's Great Race in Hamilton on Sunday.

Thomas had the stroke role for his Waikato University team who took on Cambridge University in the battle for the Harry Mahon Trophy.

All of the talk before the race suggested the power and rowing style of Cambridge would be too much for the Waikato crew, missing many of their top athletes due to the imminent rowing World Championships at nearby Lake Karapiro.

But it was the Waikato crew who got the better of the starts and sprinted off to the first corner with their nose ahead of Cambridge.

What happened next wowed a crowd watching on the big screen as Waikato cox Ainsley Ashton went for the racing line into the next corner. To take it she had to cut across and take the inside of the corner and the reality was, to pull off the move she needed another 2m of lead. Not only did she not have enough to make the move stick but she had the problem of Cambridge, now in top gear and moving well, bearing down on her left shoulder at a rate of knots.

The rules of racing dictate that unless you have clear water you must yield the corner and give the crew on the inside room. Umpire Lee Spear warned the Waikato crew but Waikato stuck to their line and, as the Cambridge boat drew alongside, a clash was inevitable.

"I considered halting both crews and restarting the race," said Spear afterwards. "But Cambridge had the line and indeed the momentum."

That became clear as Thomas, the 2009 Hawke's Bay Secondary Schools Sportsperson of the Year, was left with no room to manoeuvre his blade and he lost it in an almighty clash with the Cambridge two man. For a few seconds the race resembled a medieval jousting contest and, by the time Thomas was back into his stride, Cambridge had moved through by three-quarters of a length.

A huge push then moved them clear and effectively that was that.

Ashton made amends during the race with some fabulous moments of coxing on the challenging water.

Cambridge crossed the line to take the Harry Mahon trophy and a 3-2 lead in their Great Race clashes.

In the women's race, Waikato University was even more dominant, establishing a lead Sydney University were never going to reduce.