MARLOW’S Olympic hopefuls returned for winter training at Caversham last week as the countdown to London 2012 enters the final loop.

Three-times Olympic silver medalist Katherine Grainger plus gold medal winners Zac Purchase, Mark Hunter and Greg Searle were all back in the boats, along with Naomi Riches.

Grainger seriously considered retirement after missing out on gold in Beijing, but after months of pondering did decide to commit to another Games.

She said: “This is the one we’ve all been waiting for. It is a home Games. Because I have had previous experience I think I know what the build up will be like, but there’s so much more interest and coverage than ever before.”

Grainger, Hunter and Purchase all won golds at the world championships last month and are hot medal tips for London.

However, for Searle, a gold winner in 1992, the next ten months promise to be nerve-wracking as he hopes to hold on to his place in the men’s eight.

He said: “There are 21 seats and about 25 people in the squad going for those seats. If I slip outside the 21 then I need to be big enough to say it’s good for everyone else.

“If there is bloke who is stronger than me then it’s better he rows and not me, painful as that might be. That’s something we all live in the shadow of.

“I’ll be devastated if I get close but don’t make it, but I need to just back myself and do my best.”

The top nine rowers in the GB squad make up the pair, the four, the single sculler and the double scull.

That leaves 12 rowers fighting for eight spots. Competition between them is bound to be intense.

Searle, 39, said: “We go into this training phase between now and March/April next year and the groups won’t be selected until a month before the Games.

“It would wrong to pre-select everyone because then there is room for some complacency. But also you don’t want to go too far the other way so there is total in-fighting the whole year.

“It’s a balance we need to tread, but it isn’t that cut-throat. We are all in it together. We’re a team sport and we need to work with each other.

“There’s going to be an element of healthy competition, but we have to bare in mind the real opposition are the crews from Germany, New Zealand and Australia.

“We have to remember who the opposition is and make sure we don’t self harm. I want everyone to get as strong and fit as possible. I don’t want anyone else to do badly, but I want to be strong enough to stay within the 21.”