? Crew contains three of the men who won gold in Beijing
? Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins go straight to semi-finals
The new British men's four came into this season as red-hot favourites to win the Olympic gold medal. And on the surface it looked like business as usual here. They opened their 2012 World Cup campaign with a one-length victory over the Czechs. And in the fast conditions, on Belgrade's Lake Sava course, the British crew's time of 5min 50.55sec was significantly quicker than the mark set by the Greek and Dutch crews, who won the other heats.
But in truth, while the British showed they did at least have the ability to use their power to get out of trouble, this was not quite the sparkling performance that the rowing world was expecting from a crew that contained three of the men who took the Olympic fours title in 2008. Their coach, J�rgen Grobler, will hope his quartet use Saturday's semi-final to address a sluggish start and a blip in their third-quarter pace.
Yet while David Tanner, the team's performance director, was delighted with the four's win, he did admit that his flagship crew would take some time to gel. "Sometimes crews are made in heaven but that happens rarely in my experience," he said. "I'm confident that they will improve. We are not trying to win the Olympic regatta today."
The challenge for both Tanner and Grobler is to find a way to harmonise two different styles of rowing ? the raw power of Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Peter Reed ? and the smoothness of Alex Gregory and Tom James. In the short time the four have been together Grobler has already experimented with several different orders. Here he promoted James to the key 'three' seat to sit behind Triggs-Hodge at stroke. If the two men can find their mojo, then there is no doubt this four will fly.
But while all eyes were on the performance of the men's four, their win was just one of 11 British victories, out of the 14 Olympic events here. Like the men's four the women's double of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins came expecting to dominate their opposition. The two world champions did not disappoint. They led through every mark, beating the top doubles from Germany and China to progress straight through to Saturday's semi-final.
It was much the same story for Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase in the lightweight men's double sculls. The two defending Olympic champions looked classy as they beat Hungary's top crew by more than three seconds. "It's good to be back out there racing," Hunter said.And the Leander man knew that with their main opponents from New Zealand, not racing, it was important to post a strong performance.
It was the same for the women's pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning. In last year's world championships they had to settle for silver behind the Kiwis. But with their crushing seven-second victory over Romania, they not only qualified straight for the semi-final but sent a strong message to their All Black opposition.
Not only the top British crews performed well in the heats. Three of Tanner's new combinations posted their intention to challenge for top honours this summer. Though the selection of Sam Townsend and Bill Lucas in the men's double was unexpected, the two former Under-23 world champions showed great maturity in getting the better of a top French crew. Not to be outdone, the young men's pair of George Nash and Will Satch not only convincingly beat the Netherlands but surprised the cognoscenti by setting the fastest time in their event. And the women's quadruple, with Vicky Thornley in the stroke seat, did likewise. Their win over the USA saw them directly through to Sunday's final.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/04/team-gb-mens-four
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