Helen Glover insisted she and Heather Stanning were taking nothing for granted despite topping their women’s pairs semi-finals by over six seconds at the GB Rowing Team Trials.
This weekend marks the first time the pair have competed together since claiming Britain’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in female rowing at London 2012.
And there was little sign of rustiness from them at the trials in Caversham as the duo posted 8:07.29minutes in the second semi-final, several seconds faster than Jessica Eddie and Polly Swann who won the first semis in 8:13.69.
It leaves Glover and Stanning as favourites for Sunday’s final but the former, who paired up with Swann on the way to women’s pair gold at the 2013 World Championships in South Korea, knows the difficult weather conditions mean anything could happen.
"That was very straightforward but in these conditions you can't take anything for granted so we had to concentrate hard,” said Glover. “Now we need to recover as much as we can before the final.”
Fellow Olympic gold medallist Kat Copeland was also making her return and put in an impressive performance in the lightweight women’s single sculls, topping her semi-final with 8:59.92.
The other semi-final saw Imogen Walsh, a women’s double scull finalist at the 2013 World Championships, set the pace with 8:52.40mins.
While the men’s pair races saw Olympic and world champion Alex Gregory and his world champion crew-mate Moe Sbihi win their semi-final.
But their time was bettered in the other heat by George Nash and Andy Triggs-Hodge with Gregory looking to maintain the progression into the final.
"That was much better than the time-trial" said Gregory. "I'm really looking forward to the final now and we will try and keep it simple.
“We know we can get a good performance out but we need to do it in the conditions.”
© Sportsbeat 2014