Sydney heroes join BBC Boat Race team

Redgrave (l) and Pinsent (r) provide more thrills for BBC

Olympic champions Sir Steven Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent are the latest additions to BBC's presentation team for the 147th Boat Race in London.

The rowing stars will join Steve Rider as he hosts BBC One's Grandstand coverage of the this year's showdown between Oxford and Cambridge.

Redgrave and Pinsent have rarely been out of the spotlight since they were part of Britain's triumphant coxless fours at the Sydney Olympics last September.

Since then, five-time gold medallist Redgrave has been knighted, and received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Oxford win last year's exciting Boat Race

"Steve and Matthew will bring back memories of fantastic feats of our rowers in Sydney," said BBC director of sport Peter Salmon.

"And we aren't just being innovative with our presentation team, we will be taking viewers right into the boats - as close as you can get to the action."

The BBC plans to use the latest technology during the live coverage and post-race analysis to capture all the thrills and spills of this demanding event.

Every angle of the gruelling four and a half mile course between will be covered by 26 cameras, including one mounted in a helicopter over the river.

The virtual reality finishing line will return, after its successful introduction last year, to be beamed across the Thames again.

"The Boat Race is one of the great national sporting events of the year, and, for BBC Sport, one of the most demanding technical operations to ensure that the viewers are right in there with both crews as they battle it out in the wildness of the Thames," said editor of Grandstand Carl Hicks.

Redgrave and Pinsent are not the only 'golden boys' on the team.

Olympic gold medallists Jonny Searle and Gary Herbert, along with silver medal-winner Chris Baillieu will also be part of BBC Sport's boat-race crew.

Grandstand - 147th Boat Race

BBC One Saturday 24 March 2001 from 13.30GMT