By PA Sporting Life Staff

The British men's eight rediscovered the aggression which had been missing in their opening heat setback against Australia to get back in the hunt for a gold medal on day four of the Olympic regatta at Penrith Lakes.

On a day when the women's quadruples sculls also stormed into a final, the British men's eight sent out a warning that they may have the power and aggression to conquer the Aussies.

Forced into the repechage because of a slow start in their first race of the Olympics, Andrew Lindsay, Ben Hunt-Davis, Simon Dennis, Louis Attrill, Luka Grubor, Kieran West, Fred Scarlett, Steve Trapmore and Rowley Douglas hit back in style in perfect rowing conditions.

The men's eight team had made the mistake of being caught on the start in the defeat by the Olympic hosts, but today they took command early and never let up, blasting out in the second repechage and opening up a margin of 2.46 seconds over Italy by the 500 metre mark.

The Brits maintained their superiority throughout the race, crossing the line in five minutes 38.59 seconds - the fastest time of the day and 2.64secs ahead of Italy, the other qualifier for the final.

"We had to perform today," Attrill said. "Today was our last chance. Either we put in a performance or we were effectively going home with nothing.

"It was a highly pressurised race. We had no option. We had to attack it a bit more."

Hunt-Davis added: "We were a bit more aggressive today and tried to make sure we got the power on well."

America, the world champions, won the first repechage in a photo finish with Romania after a tremendous battle down the course, but their winning time of 5:43.22 was significantly slower than Great Britain.

Croatia, who won the other opening heat this week, complete the field.

The omens were good for the men because the women's quadruples sculls had defeated Denmark and China in their repechage.

Guin Batten, Gillian Lindsay, Katherine Grainger and Miriam Batten, despite racing together for just the second time, were quickest off the start and by the 500m mark had opened up a lead of 1.22secs over the Danes, with the Chinese further back.

The quad continued to push and by 1500m were 5.51secs up on the field before coming home in 6:30.96 with Denmark second, 4.80 seconds back and also qualifying for the final.

"We were disappointed in our heat that we weren't attacking enough so we went out today and wanted to make sure that we beat the Danes by as much as the Ukraine beat the Danes in the heat," said Batten.

"We wanted to beat them by five seconds, and we did. We were much more aggressive, much more business-like, much more on top of it."

In the other repechage the United States and Ukraine battled it out for the first half of the race before Ukraine established their authority to win in 6:29.41.

It was not so good for the British men's lightweight double sculls team of Tom Kay and Tom Middleton, competing after just over two weeks together.

Up against defending Olympic champions Markus and Michael Gier of Switzerland and the highly-rated Greek duo of Vasileios Polymeros and Panagiotis Miliotis, they finished third in 6:43.25.

Switzerland (6:35.39) and Greece (6:38.78) finished first and second, respectively, putting the British duo in the C/D semi-finals on Friday where they will attempt to reach the C final and compete for places 13 through 18.

"I think we rowed the way we wanted to but it wasn't quick enough," Middleton said. "We found that race rhythm at 500m that we didn't have in the heats.

"It was a tough draw but that's the way it goes, there weren't any easy repechages.

"We've done a lot in just two weeks, but in the end we weren't really quick enough.

"Tom especially has been extremely positive and has coped with the situation extremely well. He deserves a medal for that alone."

The Olympic games are over for the British women's eight.

With five crews in their repechage and four places available for the final, they were slow out of the gate.

Fifth at 500m, 2.30 seconds off the pace, and the British eight never managed to get back in touch, finishing in 6:23.46 with the Americans winning in 6:17.36, followed by Canada (6:17.62), Australia (6:17.72) and Belarus (6:19.42).