JON DESBOROUGH

Jon Desborough is currently the main sports news presenter for Sky News.

However, Jon is best remembered among motor sport fans for his work on Channel Four’s World Rally Championship. His debut in 2002 led to a collaboration with World Champion, Richard Burns on the Englishman’s biography, Driving Ambition.

Jon fronted Channel 4 output in 2002 and 2003, where he anchored the three live shows that were aired at each of the 14 rounds of the championship. His involvement then grew to include presentation, commentary and carrying out the interviews when ITV held the rights in 2004 and 2005.

His time as Channel Four’s anchor led to him being short-listed for the Royal Television Society’s prestigious award for Sports Presenter of the Year. He’s been hooked on the World Rally Championship ever since a knee-trembling co-drive with 2001 World Champion, Richard Burns and an equally revealing high-speed encounter with 1995 champion, Colin McRae.

From 1992 until joining Channel Four, Jon was a sports presenter at Sky News where he was able to use his enthusiasm for Formula One.

This first spell at Sky coincided with many key events in Formula One’s development in the nineties and led to many encounters with the major players: Nigel Mansell’s 1992 World Championship; Damon Hill’s rise to become the 1996 World Champion at Williams; Jonny Herbert’s British Grand Prix win and Eddie Irvine’s championship-chasing season with Ferrari in 1999.

Before joining the rally team you would have found him crewing a yacht on the BT Global Challenge Round the World Yacht race. He broadcast live from the back of one of the boats each night for Sky, a performance that led to a short-listing for Sports Reporter of the Year at the 2002 Royal Television Society Sports Awards.

Most recently he presented Channel 4`s coverage of the London Boat Show and Southampton Boat Show. You will also catch him on re-run’s of the Sky One motoring programme, Vroom Vroom.

He is a Luton Town football fan and is married with two children and lives in Hertfordshire.

Jon hosted a series of events for Castrol during the EURO 2008 Championship