Do not enter the water: how dirty Boat Race has captured world’s attention

The two women's openweight boats on the rough water at Hammersmith Bridge during Cambridge’s Boat Race trials in December. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Throughout the Boat Race’s 195-year history, it has been regarded by the rest of the world as one of those peculiar British eccentricities, like Marmite and pantomime, that are best ignored. Not this year.

The New York Times, Fox News, ABC, CNN and numerous other international media have run stories in the buildup to Saturday’s race – although it is what is floating in the Thames, rather than on top of it, that has piqued their interest.