Spectators from far and wide will line the banks of the River Thames from Putney to Mortlake to watch this afternoon’s Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging.

Among the spectators sampling the atmosphere in the build-up to the race were 24-year-old Mairin Donnelly from Sydney in Australia, who was preparing to watch the race with Xin Wei Tan from Melbourne.

"We’d heard of the Boat Race in Australia and we saw an advert for it when we were in the pub last week," said Donnelly. "We thought it was something very British, so we thought we’d come along and take a look."

Brian McDaniel, whose son Kip, is stroking Cambridge in this afternoon’s Boat Race, was also one on the interested on-lookers.

"It’s the first time I’ve come here to see it live," said McDaniel senior, from Victoria in Canada. "I travelled all the way here especially to see the Race.

"I used to row myself, so I know a little bit about it, but I’ve never experienced all of this," he said of the atmosphere that surrounds the event.

Michelle Morris, 32, who lives in Barnes, said: "We came down to watch the race last year and we were at the finish, so we thought we’d watch from down here at the start today. "

Alison Wiebdale and Riochard Stokes, both from Cambridgeshire, are watching the race live for the first time.

"We always watch the race from television and we were in London anyway for a party last night, so we thought it was too good an opportunity to miss. So we came down to watch it live," said Weibdale. We’re actually supporting Cambridge today because I was born there and we still live near the area.

"We’re predicting a Cambridge win by around three lengths," added Stokes.

"We’ve got friends who live in Putney so we travelled from Southampton especially to see the race," said Michelle Godfroy. "We’ve never seen the Boat Race live before but we always watch it on the television."

The 2006 Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging, gets underway at 4.35pm.