Olympic rowers grace Henley

The coxless four are hoping for gold at Athens

Britain's main Olympic rowing hopefuls will be on display at the Henley Royal Regatta which starts on Wednesday.

The men's coxless four, men's pair, men's single scull and women's and men's quadruple sculls are all racing.

It will be the first time for many years that the GB squad have competed at Henley in an Olympic year.

Racing as Leander and Imperial College, Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell, Alex Partridge and Steve Williams go in the Steward's Challenge Cup on Sunday.

In the Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup, the new British men's pair of Tony Garbett and Richard Dunn will face strong opposition from South African duo Ramon di Clemente and Donovan Cech, last year's world championship bronze-medallists.

Racing as Leander and University of London, the women's quadruple sculls team of Alison Mowbray, Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton and Rebecca Romero go up against a powerful Ukrainian team in the Princess Grace Challenge Cup.

In the men's single sculls, Ian Lawson from Leander will face very stiff opposition from Germany's Marcel Hacker, a previous winner of the event and last year's world silver medallist.

Lawson's first race will be on Thursday.