MARLOW rower Zac Purchase is back and honing in on London 2012 again.

He won his first race in 12 months at the GB Rowing Team winter assessments at Eton-Dorney on Sunday to draw a line under a virus that sidelined him for almost a year.

Purchase won Olympic gold in the lightweight doubls sculls alongside Wycombe’s Mark Hunter in Beijing in 2008.

But he was then struck down by a virus that ruled him out for an entire season.

After finally returning to training last September, the Marlow star was back on the water at the weekend and won the single scull by more than a second with a time of 7:08.07.

He said: “It was all about getting back to racing for the first time.

“I wouldn’t describe it as comfortable but it was good to get a win. Now it’s a question of getting faster and faster.”

Purchase had earlier won his semi-final race depite being yellow carded on the way to the line for a traffic violation.

Purchase’s next big event is the GB Rowing Team Senior Trials, which take place in Belgium on April 11 and 12.

Meanwhile, Marlow’s Katherine Grainger won the women’s single scull.