- The Boat Race course runs East to West from Putney to Mortlake and measures 4 miles, 374 yards (6,779m).

- The race is usually held one hour before high water at Putney, meaning that crews race against the stream but with the flow of the tide.

- The course record is 16 min 19 sec set by Cambridge in 1998.

- The closest finish in Boat Race history came in 1877 when the event was declared a dead heat. However, the smallest winning margin stands at just one foot, set when Oxford pipped Cambridge in 2003.

- There have been six sinkings in Boat Race history: Oxford and Cambridge have both suffered the fate three times each. In 1912, both boats sank and the race was held again.

- The heaviest man to take part in the Boat Race is Christopher Heathcote from Oxford's 1990 team, who weighed in at 17st 5lb. The lightest oarsman was Alfred Higgins, a 9 st 6.5lb stroke who lined up for Oxford in 1882.

- The first woman to compete in the Boat Race was Oxford's 1981 cox, Sue Brown. In 1989 both boats were coxed by women for the first time in the event's history.

- The youngest man to take part in the Boat Race is Robert Ross, who was just 18 years 200 days old when he lined up for Cambridge in 1977. The oldest man to have taken part is Cambridge's 1992 cox, 38-year-old Andy Probert.

- A number of famous people have taken part in the Boat Race, including mountaineer George Mallory (Cambridge 1906-1908), photographer Lord Snowdon (Cambridge 1950), former MP Colin Moynihan (Oxford 1977) and actor Hugh Laurie (Cambridge 1980).