Searle rolls back the years to capture gold for Great Britain

GREG Searle captured his first international medal for a decade as the veteran helped Great Britain's men's eight to one of six golds at the first World Cup of the season in Bled, Slovenia.

COMEBACK KID: Greg Searle helps Great Britain's men's eight to gold, ten years after his previous international event (Getty Images)

Searle, 38, who won Olympic gold at Barcelona 1992, last represented Great Britain at Sydney 2000, but he took his place in seat six of the victorious eight in Slovenia.

Peter Reed joined him as a last-minute injury substitute in the eight, which surged past 2009 world bronze medallists the Netherlands in the final 500m to win by a third of a length.

But Reed and Andy Triggs-Hodge could not clinch gold in GB's flagship boat. The men's pair were beaten by perennial rivals, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of New Zealand and were forced to settle for silver.

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins both won two gold medals each, in double and quad sculls while the double, men's coxless four and women's eight topped the podium in Bled.

There were also silver medals for the lightweight women's double, lightweight men's four and single sculler Alan Campbell in the first of three World Cup events this season.

Grainger, rowing with Watkins in the double scull for the first time, gained a measure of revenge over Liang Tian and Yangyang Zhang, two of the Chinese crew who beat her to Olympic gold in Beijing, with a dominant performance.

Just over an hour later, and joined by Beth Rodford and Annabel Vernon in the quad, the duo were assured in beating 2009 world champions Ukraine by a length.

The men's four of Alex Partridge, Richard Egington, Alex Gregory and Matt Langridge - Great Britain's only defending world champions - opened their season in excellent style, with only a young Serbian crew posing any opposition.

In the men's double sculls, Matthew Wells and new partner Marcus Bateman were in dominant form from start to finish while the women's eight also performed superbly to upset the Netherlands.