WITH six months to go to the Rio Games, Great Britain remains ambitious to maintain its place as the leading rowing nation.

Members of the team have been facing a battery of challenges set by the coaches and performance staff as the process to select the Rio 2016 line-ups continues.

Sir David Tanner is Performance Director for British Rowing. He said: “The Olympics, for a sport like rowing, is the absolute pinnacle. Every athlete of any calibre wants to be there.

“We are ambitious as a team and everyone is working hard.”

Maidenhead resident Richard Chambers, winner of the lightweight men’s four silver medal in London, said: “The level of racing within the squad, because we are a successful nation, is immense. It is almost as tough as racing internationally.”

Rowers, through their team doctor and Team GB guidance, are also keeping an eye on the Zika virus situation, and have compassion for those affected.

Katherine Grainger said: "I think it is important to keep informed but not to raise the fear factor."

Jurgen Grobler, chief coach for men, has also spoken about this being the most difficult time of the four-year cycle.

"He said: "If I look at the medals and gold won by the open men's squad in the last few years in the Olympic and non-Olympic events at world level, it is so difficult to separate the rowers.

"There are always more people than seats and to look a medal-winning athlete in the eye and tell them that they have not made it is the hardest thing. It never gets easier.

"Young people put their lives on hold especially in a sport like rowing where there are gradually no riches to be won, it is all about the pride of being an Olympic medallist."

Great Britain closed out the 2012 Olympic regatta with four golds, two silvers and three bronzes – a best ever.

Rowing is the nation’s most continuously successful Olympic sport with a gold at every Olympic Games since 1984.

In London, 28 rowers in nine boat classes won medals, and all 47 athletes made the Olympic final in front of record crowds at Eton, Dorney.

After the 2012 success, the sport experienced a surge of interest and British Rowing is already planning for a similar post-Rio glow.

For those oar-inspired by events in Rio 2016 there will be an opportunity to try rowing at local clubs across the country during the Olympic Games.

If you want to give it a go before then, British Rowing’s website has a dedicated ‘Go rowing’ section that provides newcomers, as well as those dusting off old kit, the information they need to get started - www.britishrowing.org/go-rowing.