A swimmer "protesting about elitism" brought chaos to this year's Boat Race when he jumped into the Thames and brought it to a dramatic halt, a court has heard.
Trenton Oldfield, 36, stopped the annual contest for around half an hour on April 7, the first time in the history of the 158-year event that it had been disrupted by a bather.
Opening the case, prosecutor Louis Mably told jurors the race between Oxford and Cambridge was spoiled for hundreds of thousands of spectators watching from the banks of the river or live on BBC TV, not to mention the two university rowing teams.
He said that despite it continuing, "so far as the Boat Race was concerned, Mr Oldfield had obviously caused chaos".
He told jurors at west London's Isleworth Crown Court: "The feeling of disappointment was obvious - because not only had everything been delayed but the crews and the public had been denied a natural conclusion to the race that they had come to the river to see."
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