It is difficult to know whether or not this year has flown by. On the one hand, the weeks and months through the tough winter training dragged on and on like never before, with the Olympic goal like a bull’s-eye target too distant to make out. On the other hand, we are now right in the middle of the World Cup season just 10 weeks before the Olympic final in August.

Peter Reed (left) with his gold-medal winning crew in Austria, June 2007.

The summer racing season is here. Each year there are three World Cup regattas in Europe where the majority of the countries enter their boats for a chance to measure themselves against the opposition and to get ready for the main event of the year. For three years out of four, this main event is the World Championships in September that marks the end of the season, but every 4^th year is the big one: The Olympic Games.

So far this season, I have pushed my personal best performances in training and won the National Trials Regatta in a pair (two-man boat) with Andrew Triggs Hodge for the 4^th year in a row. Three weeks ago the newly selected coxless four raced in Munich for the 1^st World Cup.

The last time we raced was 8 months ago at the World Championships, which coincidently shared the same venue. It wasn’t a nice feeling going back to face the course of our 4^th place defeat last year. We didn’t know how fast the opposition were, we were racing as the underdogs and we had a substitute with us.

Tom Lucy, who recently turned 20, replaced the injured, and recently selected, Tom James in the bows of the boat. Lucy was only in the crew for four training sessions before we raced the heat, which wasn’t ideal preparation, but he fitted in very well and showed class and maturity of someone a lot more experienced, racing in the lead boat for the first time. He had an equal contribution to the boat in training sessions and all three races and thoroughly deserves his first senior international gold medal.

After racing well in a tough semi-final draw (which was made up of five of the six crews from the World Championship final last year – only the World Champions, New Zealand were missing from the event), we were relaxed and confident that we could perform well in the final. Everything went to plan and we had a good lead by half way. I was just enjoying every stroke and proving something to myself once again.

Of course, we know that we were in seeded lanes and all the crews in that race will move on. The Dutch and Italians, who beat us last year, have experience and class and we are yet to race the New Zealand coxless four, so rather than getting ahead of ourselves we are carrying on with our own preparation with our full crew.

This great start now needs to be followed up on June 1, 2008 in the final of the Lucerne World Cup.

Preparation could have been smoother, with two of our crew out of the event with back injuries, but even with two substitutes, who are fantastic athletes, we are going there to win. We will need to race well with the World Champions (New Zealand) showing up for the first time.

I’m feeling very relaxed about the build up at the moment. It is important for me to stay calm as I find rowing well is less challenging with a calm head. It is also easier to concentrate on the job in hand if you are not getting worried about your own performance.