SEVERAL of Oxfordshire’s rowers will contest for gold later this week after qualifying for their respective finals in Rio.

Great Britain’s men’s and women’s eights both won their heats yesterday.

All nine crew members of the men’s eight – Paul Bennett, Scott Durant, Matt Gotrel, Andrew Triggs Hodge, Matt Langridge, Tom Ransley, Pete Reed, Will Satch and cox Phelan Hill – have Oxon connections and dominated to reach Saturday’s final in a time of 5mins 34.230secs.

Leander Club member and Henley resident, Gotrel, said: “It was a good start.

“It’s good to get the first race out of the way.

“For a few of the guys it’s our first Olympics, so it’s nice to be officially an Olympian now.

“The Olympics is a big deal, but for us it’s just another day in the office.

“Getting through to the final on Saturday is where we want to be.

“There are a few things to work on, but it’s a good start.”

The women, of whom seven have county links – Katie Greves, Frances Houghton, Polly Swan, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Karen Bennett, Zoe Lee, and cox Zoe de Toledo – were made to work harder, coming from behind to finish first.

In reaching Saturday’s final, they have become the first British women’s eight to make the medal race without going through a repechage.

Lee, a former Boat Race winner with Oxford University, said: “I think we’re all really pleased.

“We maybe didn’t get the fastest start compared to other crews.

“They worked pretty hard to jump out at us at the start, but coming through that middle kilometre, we know we’re strong in the finish.

“We could just feel the other boats around us were working too hard and we knew we were coming through.

“At 750m to go I thought we had it wrapped up.”

Leander Club members Angus Groom and Peter Lambert also have the opportunity to vie for gold in the men’s quadruple sculls after finishing second in their repechage.

Four other Leander members are through to their respective semi-finals.

Will Fletcher and Richard Chambers came second in their lightweight men’s double sculls heat.

But the latter feels there is room for improvement, he said: "We have done some phenomenal stuff coming here and this race was good but not good enough.

"For me, I didn’t settle us on to the rhythm we’ve had in racing and in training.

"That would have allowed us to develop on the good start we had."

Chambers added: "That was probably just the excitement of it being an Olympic Games.

"It was good but not good enough. I know we can do a better job but it is a starting block."

Jonathan Walton and John Collins won their men’s double sculls repechage.

The men's four, which includes former Oxford University Boat Club president Constantine Louloudis and Leander Club member Alex Gregory, dominated their heat to reach tomorrow's semi-finals.

Gregory was delighted with the start, he said: "That was a great first race.

"We did what we needed to do - we put our nose in front and stayed there.

"We released the pressure valve of the Olympics and got our campaign under way and we will build on that and we can make a better job of the next few races, not that we did a bad job."

In the sailing, Bryony Shaw, who grew up in Oxford, is tenth in the standings after the first three races of the women’s RS:X windsurfing.

She finished seventh, 20th and ninth on the first day.

Eventer Kitty King, formerly of Lew, near Bampton, scored 100.40 aboard Ceylor LAN in the cross country, despite dropping her whip.

However, Great Britain slipped to seventh in the team standings ahead of today’s jumping round, which is the final event.

King said: "He jumped brilliantly everywhere, he jumped up the step and I tried to get there on the three (strides), but I didn't quite make it.

"There's a lot of positives to take out of it, and he still did a great job.

"He jumped really well in the warm-up and felt fantastic and he felt brilliant over the first few fences.

"As soon as he jumped the first two I thought we're going to have a good ride and we did."