Boat Race: Coxing is like conducting, says Oxford's Thomas Johnson

"It's quite hard to persuade people to become coxes because it means sitting in a boat getting cold and wet for hours on end," says Zachary Thomas Johnson

"Rowing has a sense of repetitive rhythm and as a musician, that attracted me," says Zachary Thomas Johnson as he discusses how a conductor of orchestras ended up coxing Oxford in the 164th Boat Race.

His crew will face Cambridge on the River Thames on Saturday and Thomas Johnson goes as far as to say that coxing the Blue Boat is very much like conducting an orchestra.

"You're analysing what you can see and hear," he told BBC Sport. "Blades going into the water - are they coming out at the same time? How high are they out of the water?

"All that crosses over with what you're feeling in an orchestra: Are people playing in tune? Are the violins loud enough? Is the flute playing softly enough? All of that stuff is quite transferable."

Music graduate Thomas Johnson, 21, is training for his first Boat Race as he studies for a Masters degree at Lady Margaret Hall.

"Music is something I've done since I was four years old but coxing is exciting. There's something about racing that gives you more adrenalin."

Thomas Johnson took up rowing when he as an undergraduate at Oxford.

"The greatest thing about Oxford is that there's all of the college rowing so you can pick it up at any level you want," he says.

Oxford won last year, but have returned only two members of that crew in 2018

"I was a rower rather than a cox - but one of my friends was a cox himself and just said 'do you want to have a go?'

"I'm fairly light and I'm a conductor, I have those leadership abilities so I thought I'd give it a go. I got into it really quickly.

"I don't have the years of coxing experience that some of the rowers have so it's been quite a learning curve for me," he says.

"It's quite a balancing act between what people want to hear from you and… well, people's opinions don't always align," he adds diplomatically.

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Oxford have won 12 of the past 18 Boat Races and are favourites to win again on Saturday. If they do, they will be one win short of Cambridge's total of 82 wins on the Thames.

One of last year's successful crew - Vassilis Ragoussis - is back in the Oxford boat this year.

Cambridge lead the overall Boat Race standings - but only by two races, with one dead heat

Thomas Johnson's Masters in Musicology - "it's essentially a history degree but focusing on music with a bit of philosophy and theory," he explains - should take a year.

Although his crew are favourites for another win, he avoids taking a victory in his first Boat Race for granted.

"It's really hard to picture what a winning moment would be like," he said. "I've finished orchestral works and also a half marathon.

"Obviously if we were to win the Boat Race that would pretty much eclipse all achievements to date."