Hodge returning to the scene of greatest triumph

Hodge, 34, from Skipton, won a second gold in the men’s four at London 2012 and is back in Buckinghamshire this weekend for the second World Cup regatta of the summer.

Hodge, having said he wants to carry on to Rio in 2016, has started the journey in the men’s eight and is set to continue for this summer at least.

Along with his old crewmates from the four – Pete Reed and Alex Gregory – they won gold in the first regatta in Australia in March.

Now they look to repeat the feat and continue their progress towards the world championships in Korea later this summer.

“Dorney holds a lot of fantastic memories and some of the best I’ll ever have,” said Hodge. “The location means just as much as the medal, the medal is just a lump of metal but the memories and the effort and the time people put into that made it special.

“Every time you show people your medal, people remember a part of Dorney Lake or a part of their experience from that day and when we go there again it is going to be a very different experience.”

City of York rower Tom Ransley, who won bronze in the eight at London, is also in the boat.

Yarm’s Kristina Stiller will race in the women’s quadruple scull, the boat in which she finished fourth at the World Cup in Sydney earlier this year.

Racing alongside Stiller in Sydney was Zoe Lee, from Richmond, North Yorkshire, who forms part of the women’s eight crew. She previously won bronze with the eight at last year’s European championships.

Middlesbrough’s Olympic gold medallist Katherine Copeland has lost her London-winning partner.

Sophie Hosking, who rowed to gold with Copeland, 22, in the women’s lightweight double sculls at London 2012, is to retire and train to become a solicitor.

Hosking said: “I have never seen sport as the only career I wanted in life. I wanted to be as good as I could and it now feels the right time to move on.”

Copeland is expected to defend her Olympic title in Rio 2016 but is not back at Dorney this week.

Paul Bennett, 24, of Leeds, rows in one of three British pairs.