By Bryn Palmer, Sydney

Matthew Pinsent revealed how the shock of defeat has jolted Britain's 'oarsome foursome' back into gold medal-winning form as they laid the ghosts of Lucerne to rest in emphatic style on Sunday.

The men's coxless four launched Steve Redgrave's historic bid for a fifth successive Olympics gold with a comfortable win in the opening heat on the Penrith Lake, their first competitive outing since finishing fourth at the world championships in July.

That surprise setback led many observers to cast doubt on the viability of their Sydney mission, with Pinsent admitting the realisation they could miss out on their moment of glory haunted him in the immediate aftermath of the defeat.

But instead of throwing themselves into extra training, coach Jurgen Grobler gave the quartet a week off to reflect on the reverse, a period that appears to have refuelled their desire to row themselves into the record books.

"I certainly faced the demons, and realised we were well capable of losing the Olympics," said Pinsent, "and in that time I re-found the determination to win it.

"When we came back, all four of us had established what we wanted to happen. We put together some things we wanted to change and more importantly, what we wanted to keep the same.

"In the immediate aftermath of that meeting we trained angry that we had lost, and even when that dissipated there was a steely edge to it that we have maintained all the way through."

Pinsent, chasing his third Olympic gold alongside Redgrave, admits that after all the years of success, an element of complacency may have crept into their preparations that has now been ruthlessly stamped out.

"However guarded you are against it, if you win all the time you come to expect it, and maybe forget what goes into it and how much other people want to win as well," he explained.

The British crew, with Tim Foster and James Cracknell completing the four, certainly appeared keen to make a statement to the doubters today, taking the lead early and resisting concerted efforts by Australia to breach the gap.

They cruised home to win by a quarter of a length in the fastest qualifying time of 6:01.58, ahead of the Australians and Slovenia, who join Italy, the USA, Norway, France, New Zealand and Germany in Thursday's semi finals.

"It won't be quick enough to win the final, but we can move on and we have done that very well in this competition in the past," Pinsent added.

"The first race is about establishing your confidence and ability to win the event. We know we can, we know it is there. It is a matter of producing that winning form when we want it."

Redgrave repeated his claim that the result in Lucerne had not been significant setback.

"Laying the Lucerne ghost to rest has been more of a factor with the media than ourselves," he said.

"If you just look at our history of what we've done, we've only lost two races as a four and only one of them with Tim.

"You have to look at it realistically and Lucerne wasn't the true result of what we could do.

"What that did do was concentrate the mind and we've had a good training period from there to here.

"It would have been quite difficult mentally, I think, winning Lucerne comfortably and then thinking all we've got to do is keep it going for the next six weeks. It's been nice having something to think about."

The coxless four's upbeat mood was shared by Greg Searle and Ed Goode, who made an impressive start in their bid for a fourth consecutive British Olympic gold in the men's coxless pairs when they won their opening heat and set the fastest qualifying time for Thursday's semi finals.

Looking to follow in the wake of first Steve Redgrave and Andy Holmes, and then Redgrave and Pinsent (twice), the pair controlled the race from the front after swapping positions since their last race, with Searle stroking for the first time in a major competition.

"We are aware we haven't won any medals yet but we are pretty satisfied with the work we have done in the last couple of months and the speed we are showing," he said, describing the race as a "no frills" effort.

"You can't help being satisfied when we go as well as we think we can go, and I hope this is not the only time we are celebrating."

They finished in a time of 6:42:45, narrowly ahead of the Yugoslavian pair who won the second heat. France, who won the first heat, Italy, Croatia, South Africa, the USA, Australia and Canada complete the semi final line-up.

Earlier, Alison Mowbray could only manage third in her heat of the women's single sculls and will now attempt to progress through the repechage section, as will Matthew Wells in the men's single sculls, after finishing second in his heat.

The other British participants on the Penrith Lake endured an unhappy time, with former world champions Dot Blackie and Catherine Bishop trailing in fifth and last in their heat.