MATTHEW Langridge faces an anxious wait to discover his fate after a trial for Great Britain’s team at this summer’s Olympic Games ended in disappointment.

The Northwich-born rower, who won a silver medal in the men’s pair at last year’s world championships, did not even make the A final in the same boat class at Caversham.

Instead the 32-year-old, who joined forces with former Olympic champion Andy Triggs-Hodge after regular crewmate James Foad was ruled out by a back injury, had to settle for second spot in the B final.

“It’s by no means a fair reflection on us and we’re struggling to understand why right now,” said Triggs-Hodge, of Molesey Boat Club.

“It goes to show how strong the team is, and it’s great to be part of that.”

The duo had been seventh fastest during a time trial over 1,900m on Tuesday morning.

Double Olympic champion Pete Reed and Constantine Louloudis were quickest overall in 6:11.90, with Alex Gregory and Moe Sbihi – winners at the last two British trials – just beating men’s four world bronze-medallists Alan Sinclair and Stewart Innes to second spot.

Sinclair and Innes then followed Gregory and Sbihi across the line in the first semi-final later the same day, when Langridge and Triggs-Hodge were pipped for third by Tom Ransley and Scott Durant after losing momentum in the final 350m.

They were then second behind world coxed pair champions Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell and Matt Durant in Wednesday’s B final.

“We’ve had an exceptional set of trials which is what we want for an Olympic year,” said Sir David Tanner, performance director for the British team.

“We still have some questions as we move towards our crew formation, but we have good information from these trials as we start putting together our boats for the European Championships [in May].”

Langridge and Foad took the European crown in Poland last year, and have finished second behind crack Kiwi pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond at the past two world championships.

However Foad is out of contention for a place in the team at Rio after having an operation on his back.

Results

GB Rowing team trials

Men’s pair

Wednesday

B final

1 Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (Uni of London) & Matt Durant (Oxford Brookes Uni) 6.39.50

2 Matt Langridge (Leander) & Andy Triggs-Hodge (Molesey) 6.42.36

3 William Warr & Matt Rossiter (Leander) 6.43.86

4 Oliver Cook (Uni of London) & Callum McBrierty (Leander) 6.44.50

5 George Rossiter & Barnaby Stentiford (Leander) 6.52.93

6 Chris Boddy & Tom Ford (Leander) 7.02.27

Tuesday

Semi-final one

1 Alex Gregory (Leander) & Mo Sbihi (Molesey) 6.43.83

2 Alex Sinclair & Stewart Innes (Leander) 6.49.18

3 Tom Ransley (Leander) & Scott Durant (Oxford Brookes Uni) 6.53.65

4 Matt Langridge (Leander) & Andy Triggs-Hodge (Molesey) 6.56.19

Time trial

7 Matt Langridge (Leander) & Andy Triggs-Hodge (Molesey) 6.19.65