Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

"British rowing losing grip", shouted a China Daily headline this week - not a question, a statement.

It was above an interview with Steve Williams, the only member of the 2004 to still be in the boat in Beijing.

The general tone of the piece was that without the gold-laden heroes of yesteryear, in the rowing regatta had sprung a leak.

That withering analysis followed another underwhelming assessment of our prospects from .

The highly-respected US publication made podium predictions for all 302 events in Beijing and pencilled Britain in for a gold, a silver and a bronze in the rowing - one less than British Rowing's four-medal target.

Three medals ain't bad, especially if at least one of them is a nugget, but it is hardly Rule Britannia material, is it?

We and plenty in international events in the years since - shouldn't we be looking for a famous five, a super six or perhaps even a seven up?

And if we're seriously thinking about finishing fourth in the medal table in London next time around the Olympic block, aren't backward moves (even in rowing) a bad thing, particularly with all this lottery lucre floating about?

So it was with these thoughts swirling around my head, that I took the trip out to the rowing venue. It was perhaps the best decision I've made since arriving.

First, Shunyi is lovely.

If you can ignore the six-lane toll road that takes you out there and the enormous brewery (whose chimneys were still belching beery burps into the air when I drove past) just down the road from the lake, it is almost countryside.

Second, having shared conference facility space with the cream of the world's press corps (full-fat, mostly) for five days, it was great to actually be outside, surrounded by strapping specimens in damp lycra.

And third, rowers are really very nice.

Between the front gate and the main stand I passed two Aussie scullers, an Italian quartet of some description, five Poles and three huge Yanks from the men's eight.

I asked them all the same daft questions - "How's it going?" "What's the lake like?" "Seen any British rowers?" - and they all stopped to chat ("great", "great" and "yes", were their answers, by the way).

But they weren't the questions I really wanted answered.

For those questions, only GB rowers would do, which meant I was pretty relieved when I opened the door of a grey Nissen hut behind the media stand and found almost half the British team sitting about waiting to be asked stuff.

So, lads and lasses, what's the mood in the camp like? Are we going to win more than three medals? Who are you most worried about? Who did you vote for in the flag-bearer vote? What are you reading?

I'll spare you a full run-down but the good news is the mood is universally good, we will win more than three medals (with all the usual provisos), it varies from boat to boat but the Chinese are a concern, slalom canoeist Campbell Walsh got a lot of love in the ballot and books range from Bruce Parry's Tribe to "what's a book?".

But the man I really wanted to ask about where the British rowing team was in relation to its regatta rivals was performance director David Tanner (a man the team referred to as "our headmaster").

So David, what do you think about the China Daily headline and SI's medal prediction? Are we on the slide?

"Really?" he said. "I hadn't heard that.

"Well, I think some people are going to be looking a bit stupid in a week's time."

He didn't need to add that it wouldn't be him and his rowers.

The bottom line, however, is this is the first British team to go to an Olympics without a recognised star, somebody who has managed to bridge the periphery sport gap and make a mark in the mainstream media.

That does not, however, mean the team is not packed with talent and proven performers on the world stage. There are potential Pinsents and Redgraves in this bunch, they just need a bigger stage to prove it.

Well, they'll get one here.

The Shunyi venue, which holds 37,000 fans along its 2km length, is a picture and the rowing regatta is perfectly poised to set many of the Olympic jungle's biggest beasts against one another.

Most of the nations with top-10 pretensions in the medal table will need to pick up trinkets here.

In terms of British hopes (and future mainstream stars), I like the look of Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter in the lightweight double sculls. They won all three World Cup events this year and talk a good game.

The women's quad, stroked (not like that) by Katherine Grainger, have a superb shot of becoming the first British female crew to win Olympic gold, and the men's eight, , are right up for the scrap in the sport's showpiece event.

In fact, every British rower I spoke to said they were in with a serious shout, and they sounded like they meant it. And indeed the man who set the benchmark for them all to match, Steve Redgrave (working for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ TV covering the rowing), reckons the team may have a chance in up to eight or nine finals.

Keep a close eye on our women's sculls pairing, Anna Bebbington and Elise Laverick - Anna is healthy again and they're convinced they can take down their Chinese rivals.

So is British rowing losing grip? Nah, it's lost a few legends but it remains a star factory and it should be about to deliver its next batch.