By Aaron Sims

A TWO-TIME Olympic rowing champion from Nailsworth has moved a step closer towards Rio 2016 with a bronze medal at the European Championships in Germany.

Pete Reed, who won gold in the British coxless four in Beijing and London, has been selected this season to compete in the Great Britain men’s eight, an event he has won the World Championships in for the past two years, as well as last year’s European title.

The naval lieutenant looked to retain the title in Brandenburg after the crew comfortably won their heat, progressing straight to the final, but during the finals on Sunday, the weather began to worsen, with a strong headwind creating unstable, choppy conditions which caused many crews to suffer.

A tough race ensued with Great Britain losing ground in the early stages of the 2km race to the a fast starting Dutch crew, a young Russian crew, and GB’s main rivals, the Germans, with pressure also mounting from the eight from Belarus.

But despite their best efforts to surpass the Dutch, a fading GB were not able to catch Germany, who put in a breath-taking sprint in the closing stages to open out an impressive lead over Russia.

A late charge from Belarus resulted in a photo-finish for third, with the results unable to split them from the British even by a thousandth of a second, but the British were awarded bronze due to their better results in the previous round of racing.

Overall, Britain topped the medals table for the event, with four golds from the women’s pair and eight, and from the men’s coxless four and lightweight pair, with silvers in the men’s pair and lightweight four.

But a number of top crews, including the women’s double sculls and the men’s quadruple sculls failed to deliver in the rough conditions After the race, Reed posted a picture of his medal on Instagram with the words: “Going home to Blighty, beaten and bruised in a manner unbecoming of this Eight.

“We have no one but ourselves to blame for having lost the gold and European title to the superior Germans today.

“We were not good enough, but we will never give up on ourselves and our big ambitions. I will not forget this race.”

GB Rowing Team’s performance director Sir David Tanner described the finals day as one “of mixed fortunes”, adding: “Conditions have bordered on the extreme and have bene a tough challenge for all nations but we are an outdoor sport and have to accept that.

“It’s now onto Lucerne for the World Cup in late May where we will hope for calmer water.”