DUAL Olympic champion Pete Reed had to settle for a silver medal in the new-look Men's Eight at the World Cup II in Aiguebelette, France.

Alan Sinclair, Nathaniel Reilly’O’Donnel, Matt Langridge and cox Henry Fieldman all came into the eight following a slightly disappointing bronze medal-winning display at the European Championships in Belgrade and the crew produced a Herculean effort to hold off Belarus and France in the final and take silver in 5min 43.15sec.

A strong American crew took the gold medal.

Along with former Cirencester Deer Park pupil Reed, from Nailsworth, there were medal-winning performances at the regatta from two other Gloucestershire rowers, Alex Gregory and Matt Gotrel.

Wormington’s Gregory raced in a Men’s Four which was unchanged from their recent gold medal-winning effort in Belgrade, with Moe Sbihi, George Nash and Andrew Triggs Hodge completing the crew.

This was the first chance for this four to test their mettle against Australia – perennial rivals in this event.

They came through this test, producing a dominant performance in the final. They built a solid lead by the halfway mark and never looked like being caught, eventually beating their Australian counterparts by a comfortable margin of more than five seconds.

Chipping Campden’s Gotrel had switched from the Men's Eight in Belgrade to the Men’s Pair with Paul Bennett, who was returning from injury.

They lined-up against the seemingly untouchable New Zealand pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond in the final and, although beaten, produced a memorable debut performance to hold off France and take a bronze medal in 6.34.62 behind the New Zealanders and Germany.