THE Olympics will feel pretty real for a host of Bucks rowers this weekend as they head to Boston to defend their places in the GB squad.

The first set of winter trials takes place over 5km tomorrow and it’s the first opportunity for rowers outside the squad to stake a claim for the Games.

Regardless of what boat they’re normally assigned to, each rower will race alone in Boston so individual times can be compared.

That means defending Olympic champions Zac Purchase from Marlow and Wycombe’s Mark Hunter will be competing against each other as well as 1992 gold winner Greg Searle.

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.”

Six-time world champion Katherine Grainger will also be racing as she steps up training for what she hopes will be her first Olympic gold.

Performance director David Tanner said: “Boston always provides a challenging test for the rowers. All the ‘greats’ of our sport like Sir Matt Pinsent, Sir Steve Redgrave and James Cracknell have been through the process, just like today’s crop of talented rowers.

“They all know how valuable it is not only to gauge winter training but to provide a route into the squad.”

The next stop after Boston will be racing on the Olympic course itself in the spring.

The senior trials take place at Eton-Dorney on March 10 and 11.