The tensest battle of the Blues of recent years ended in a score draw for Oxford and Cambridge on the first Sunday in April, after Cambridge extended their winning run in the women's race and Oxford broke their losing streak in the men's. There was a win apiece in the reserve races too, again going Light Blue for the women and Dark Blue for the men.

Celebrating being back on the historic Tideway course after the 2020 cancellation and 2021 forced move to Ely, it was a superb day's racing with both women's Blue Boats going under the course record and none of the losing crews at any stage giving up, leading to narrow margins. Umpires John Garrett and Sir Matthew Pinsent had plenty to do, though the two races were very different in style. Arguably the strongest ever year for the race, all the top crews featured former Blues and Olympians, with double Tokyo medallist Grace Prendergast the most famous rower in the event for a Cambridge women's crew who were strong favourites.

Oxford won the toss for the women's race, choosing Surrey in the hopes that their experienced Blues could hold the power of Cambridge's talented eight from the start. The Light Blues claimed a short lead early on, but had to overrate Oxford during the first minute to carry on extending their advantage. Pushing hard against the Dark Blues to maximise his advantage in the first bend, Cambridge cox Jasper Parish was able to move up the rival crew and shortly before three minutes was sitting alongside the Oxford bow seat. This earned some warnings from Garrett, as Parish cut dramatically across into Oxford's water to shut the door on the race at his earliest opportunity, but it turned out to be the clinching moment for the race as from then on Cambridge's victory was never in doubt.

Oxford pushed repeatedly from the Milepost to Hammersmith Bridge to stay close to Cambridge's stern, earning Parish yet more warnings as the two crews briefly swapped stations while barely a few feet apart. However, by the time they passed Harrods' Depository Cambridge were back on Middlesex and had moved another half-length away. Despite more attacks the distance slowly widened, until by the line Cambridge won with a new Tideway record of 18 minutes 23 seconds and a finish margin of 2.25 lengths. Oxford also went three seconds under the previous course record. Oxford protested Cambridge's cut-across coxing after the finish, but Garrett allowed Cambridge's fifth successive victory to stand, saying, "It was aggressive steering, I agree with you, but it's not a disqualification offence."