Races have left the BBC as Oxford’s women, led by Olympic medallist Heidi Long, seek to end long wait for victory
Channel 4 has screened plenty of elite sport since launching in 1982. Test cricket, the Tour de France, the Paralympics and even, for those with long memories, Masters golf in the mid-80s.
Traditionally regarded as the most progressive and forward-thinking terrestrial TV channel, on Saturday a new string will be added to its sporting bow: the Boat Races, part of the English calendar since 1829. The plan is for an old event, famously and often controversially contested by Oxford and Cambridge universities, to acquire a new look.
Clare Balding, previously the face of the BBC’s longstanding coverage, will again be the presenter but Jamie Laing – reality TV star, Radio 1 DJ and podcaster – arrives alongside. Ade Adepitan, TV presenter and “bona fide Londoner” (according to the production company), is also part of the on-screen team.
The BBC’s decision to drop the event and Channel 4’s acquisition of it, announced last October, led some to wonder if it is drifting into irrelevance. Naturally the organisers and Channel 4 maintain the opposite is true; that the switch will widen the event’s appeal and attract a new audience.
