26 June: Fifteen Leander athletes have been named among 43 rowing athletes in Team GB for the Olympic regatta in Beijing in six weeks time.

At the official team announcement at the Redgrave-Pinsent rowing lake in Caversham Steve Williams, the Leander captain, said that it was an honour and a privilege to be part of such a strong team, which would be doing everything they could to make their country proud.

Rowing is the only sport it which Britain has won an Olympic gold medal at every Games since 1984, and every one of those crews has included at least one Leander athlete.

After their third successive gold medal at the World Cup regatta in Poznan Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase are now firm favourites for Olympic gold in the lightweight double sculls. But hopes are high that the men's four and the women's quad, the GB flagship boats for the last three years, can still fulfil expectations despite mixed results so far this season.

"The Olympic Games bring out the best in every athlete whatever the sport", said GB Performance Director David Tanner. "Everyone will be trying to peak at the right time on the right day, including the Chinese hosts who have emerged in the last four years to be a formidable force in our sport. We go to Beijing confident but aware of the size of the task ahead".

GB Rowing's women's quadruple scull has had a remarkable four years since Athens where GB won silver. In 2005 the newly-formed crew, after the retirement of Leander's Alison Mowbray, disrupted a long-term German dominance of this event to take the world title in Gifu, Japan.

The quartet - then formed of Katherine Grainger, Sarah Winckless, Frances Houghton and Rebecca Romero - went on to race on home water at the Eton world championships, this time with Debbie Flood as a replacement for Romero. GB were devastated to come second to Russia but were later elevated to world champion status once more after a Russian crew member was found to have earlier tested positive for a banned substance.

In 2007 the World Championships moved onto Munich where Annie Vernon, a graduate of the sport's own talent development scheme, came into the crew in lieu of Winckless. They dominated their final from the outset against opposition from Germany and China to take the gold.

For all four women this is an opportunity to make history.

"I've made no secret that the Olympic gold is the missing one from the set", said Grainger recently. "That's the one we want". Britain has never won an Olympic gold in a women's rowing event.

GB Rowing's men's four, an event in which GB is the defending Olympic gold medallist, were also world champions in 2005 and 2006. For a remarkable 27-race run they were unbeaten in this event until the final of the World Championships in Munich last year where they finished fourth. This year there has been a degree of upheaval through injury to the season's chosen line-up of Tom James, Steve Williams, Peter Reed and Andy Triggs Hodge. The crew came together finally for the season's last world cup in Poznan, Poland, last weekend where they won silver and showed they are back on track for Beijing. Earlier they won world cup gold in Munich, with Tom Lucy replacing Tom James and were eighth in Lucerne when Triggs Hodge was also injured.

Leander's Steve Rowbotham and Matt Wells, the GB selections in the open men's double scull, were world cup winners and silver medallists at Munich and Lucerne this year respectively before missing last weekend's world cup as a precaution because of a slight injury to Rowbotham. Over the past four years - which has included a World Championships bronze medal at Eton in 2006 - this duo has been consistent world cup medal winners.

Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter are their equivalents in the lightweight men's double scull. They began the 2008 season as bronze medallists from the 2007 World Championships and as twice silver medallists in the 2007 world cup. They ended the 2008 season as winners of the world cup series after an unbeaten run which included a thrilling victory against the 2008 world champions from Denmark in Poznan last weekend.

This duo has gelled in the two years since the Eton World Championships in 2006 - at which Hunter narrowly missed out on the lightweight double scull final with James Lindsay-Fynn whilst Purchase took gold in the non-Olympic lightweight men's single scull.

GB won women's double scull bronze in Athens four years ago through Elise Laverick and Sarah Winckless. In 2005 Laverick teamed up with Debbie Flood because Winckless had moved into the quadruple scull. They won world cup bronze and were fifth at the World Championships. At the Eton 2006 World Championships Leander's Anna Bebington teamed up with Annie Vernon in this boat class to take fourth place, after world cup gold and silver earlier that year.

For the Munich World Championships last year Bebington teamed up with Laverick to take bronze after an injury-interrupted season for Bebington. This year, after differing GB combinations, Bebington and Laverick are once more the chosen duo. They have been building up their performance over the past two world cups and took a strong gold in Poznan at the weekend - Laverick's career first world cup gold.

The Great Britain men's eight, coached by Mark Banks, has seen several transformations over the course of the past four years, reaching a high point in 2007, taking World Championships bronze. This year the crew has featured Leander's Alex Partridge, world champion in the men's four in 2005 and 2006, as well as his clubmates Matt Langridge and Colin Smith, winners of World Championships bronze last year in the men's pair. The crew, stroked by Leander's Colin Smith, were in good form last weekend and took gold in the world cup at Poznan with a strong performance to beat Germany.

Leander's Lou Reeve and her partner Olivia Whitlam qualified the women's pair for Beijing via the final Olympic Qualifying Regatta in Poznan, Poland, last week. Reeve was previously part of the women's eight and Whitlam was the world U23 women's pair champion in 2007.

The pair raised their game to qualify in dramatic style in the final in Poznan and were described has having "rowed out of their skins".

ENDS