Boat Race: James Cracknell set to become oldest competitor for Cambridge against Oxford

James Cracknell took gold in the coxless fours at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics

Two-time Olympic champion James Cracknell is set to become the oldest person to compete in the Boat Race.

The crews are being announced on Thursday and Cracknell, 46, is set to be named in the Cambridge boat for the iconic race on 7 April.

Cracknell retired from elite rowing in 2006 but qualifies because he is studying a Master of Philosophy degree in human evolution at the University.

He won gold in the coxless fours at both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.

The previous oldest Boat Race competitor was Andy Probert who was 38 when he coxed the Cambridge boat in 1992. Mike Wherley was 36 when he rowed for Oxford in 2008.

Cambridge beat Oxford in the men's, women's and both reserve races of the annual event, held on the River Thames, in 2018.

At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Cracknell took gold in the coxless fours alongside Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Matthew Pinsent and Tim Foster.

And he repeated that feat four years later in Athens with Pinsent, Ed Coode and Steve Williams.

Cracknell is also a former six-time champion at the World Rowing Championships, where he claimed gold medals in the coxless pair, coxed pair and coxless fours.

While he officially retired from the sport at the age of 33, Cracknell went on to compete in a South Pole Race in 2009, which involved rowing across the Atlantic Ocean and trekking across the Arabian Desert.

In 2010, he finished 12th in the 156-mile Marathon des Sables - the best finish by a Briton in the endurance race.

More recently Cracknell completed the London Marathon in a time of two hours, 43 minutes and 12 seconds, in 2017.