Searle's comeback to continue with British trial on Saturday

FORMER Olympic champion Greg Searle's quest to compete at 2012 will take another small step at the GB Rowing long distance assessment on Saturday.

COMEBACK KID: 37-year old former Olympic champion Greg Searle continues his quest for a 2012 medal in Boston on Saturday (Getty Images)

The 37-year old, who won coxed pair gold with brother Jonny in Barcelona 1992, was inspired to come out of retirement after watching August's World Championships in Poland and is targeting a place in the British squad for 2010.

And while October's winter assessment, where he beat 85 other rowers to win, didn't include the World Championships squad, Saturday's trials in Boston, Lincolnshire are likely to feature the majority of the 2009 British squad including world silver medallist Alan Campbell.

But Searle, who also struck bronze in the 1996 Olympic coxless four, insists he has stayed in tip-top shape since his retirement after missing out on a medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

"I didn't want to row in Beijing but the pull of London was just too strong," he told the Telegraph.

"I'd always kept in shape but decided to wait until about three years out and see what kind of shape I was in then.

"To be able to do something like this feels like a really exciting adventure."

Having taken a year out after the Beijing Olympics, a number of other British medallists are also returning to action for the 2010 season including double silver medallists for quadruple sculls Debbie Flood and Fran Houghton as well as lightweight double sculls winner Mark Hunter and coxless four champion Tom James.