MATTHEW Langridge believes he has never had a better chance to become Olympic champion after helping Team GB to the men’s eight final in Rio.

The Northwich rower, who has won two medals – one silver, the other bronze – at the past two Games, believes the omens are promising after the class of 2016 laid down a marker in Brazil on Monday.

Langridge and company won the opening heat in 5.34.23, more than four seconds faster than defending champions Germany who crossed the line first in the other first-round race.

Both crews qualify automatically for the final on Saturday, when the 33-year-old is adamant he has the best opportunity yet to finally stand on the podium’s top step.

“It would mean everything to get that gold and I’m here to win – no question,” he said.

“I’ve been close to being an Olympic champion previously, and that’s what I want to achieve.

“For me, it would complete the set.

“It was a good start [on Monday].

“All we can say is that it’s a job well-done.

“You can only beat the people you have alongside you in the race, which we did, but we know this is just a first step and the final is a different one.

“We have five days to get better, and that’s what we need to do."

With the British and German crews safely through the rest of the field, including the Netherlands and USA, will contest a repechage on Wednesday.

The Dutch beat Langridge and his teammates comfortably at a World Cup regatta earlier this season, and he refuses to rule them out of the running.

He added: “You want to win every race.

“It wouldn’t have been a disaster if we had to go through the repechage because the schedule is quite spread out and we would have had time to recover.

“For that reason we can’t write off the crews who do have to.”

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