Rowing recipe for gold

Jurgen Grobler: Targeting Olympic success

Great Britain's rowers enjoyed a promising first day of the World Cup in Munich as men's coach Jurgen Grobler looks for the right recipe for Olympic success.

Seven crews made the finals in Munich as Grobler looks to continue GB's preparations towards what is expected to be a successful summer for the home nation.

The official Olympic target is to match the six medals they won in Beijing and retain their position as the world's leading rowing nation.

But Grobler has 40 years of experience in producing Olympic champions and he believes Britain have all the right ingredients - chiefly the passion and dedication - to do even better than that.

"We have a good competitive team, and the World Cup shows potential for a very good result," Grobler said.

Target

"Our target will be to do as well as at the last Olympics. That's the first challenge, but no question the athletes would get upset with only that many medals.

"We are well funded, we have loads of support, we train hard and we demonstrate that through results. What you can't do is buy the medals, we are not the only one in the world.

"The key thing [to winning] is the right kind of life, the passion and dedication to the sport. Rowing is a very small family. The principles are the same, it's how you do it daily and motivate athletes.

"We have a recipe. It's the same basic recipe as everyone else but one that maybe tastes a bit better."

Britain have reinforced their position as the world's leading nation by winning the World Cup every year since the Beijing Olympics and this season is shaping up to be similarly successful.

The Munich World Cup is the final international regatta before London 2012 but it is not an Olympic dress rehearsal in every class, with the likes of China opting not to compete.

Results

Britain's men's four of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Alex Gregory and Tom James qualified without any trouble and another showdown with Australia, who pushed them so close at the Lucerne World Cup, is looming in the final.

The women's pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning were the first to qualify, while Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins won their women's double heat in commanding fashion, a 20th consecutive victory.

Two of Britain's lightweight crews - the women's double of Sophie Hosking and Kat Copeland and the men's four of Richard Chambers, Rob Williams, Peter Chambers and Chris Bartley - came through thrilling finishes to win their heats against Danish opposition.

"We've had some positives here and there and we should remember that whilst there are some nations missing from those that raced in Lucerne, the quality and intensity of the racing is still very high here," said performance director David Tanner.

The men's pair of Cameron Nichol and Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell and the double scull of Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend will both race in repechages on Saturday.