Tom George believes a pre-season wobble is firmly behind him as he prepares for the European Rowing Championships in Szeged.

The 29-year-old from Cheltenham has seen his winter training massively disrupted by difficult weather conditions at his base in Caversham.

But he partnered Ollie Wynne-Griffith to World Cup gold in Varese in the men’s pair to get their season off to the best possible start.

“We aren’t back on top yet, the Europeans is the big one for us for now before the Olympics,” he said.

“Preparation hasn’t been amazing so to have a positive weekend is really important. We’ve learned to trust ourselves and back ourselves and sometimes it is good to do that.

“Caversham conditions have been awful, we came into last weekend and I had a little bit of a wobble at the end of the training block over having no clue where we are.

“It was really important to come and get us some good water. You don’t turn bad overnight and we need to start trusting ourselves.”

George and Wynne-Griffith head to Hungary as the reigning European silver medallists in the event having come second in Bled last year.

They also won World Championship silver in Belgrade in 2023 before beginning this season’s campaign in Italy with gold.

George added: “In Varese, we executed exactly what we wanted to execute. In terms of the middle kilometre especially and trusting ourselves.

“Last year, we got caught out in wanting to boss it out and then look where we are going to come and covering a move but actually, at the World Cup we were pretty good.”

That trust has been crucial between George and Wynne-Griffith, who have known each other since their school days.

George went on to study and compete for Princeton and Cambridge before claiming bronze in the men’s eight alongside Wynne-Griffith at Tokyo 2020.

The two are going it alone in pursuit of a second Olympic Games, and last year broke the British record on the way to World Cup gold.

Wynne-Griffith added: “We’ve learnt to stay in our lane and do what we do rather than take account of what everything else is doing.

“The back end of the race is something we’ve really looked at probably since the World Championship final, so it has been about seeing what is there.

“But for us, the middle body, the middle kilometre has been what the winter has all been about.”

British Rowing is the governing body for the sport and is responsible for the development of rowing in England and the training and selection of rowers to represent Great Britain. The GB Rowing Team is supported by the National Lottery Sports Fund. To find out more, and to follow the team, head to https://britishrowing.org/