Wimbledon’s Sophie Hosking has been waiting in the wings of the Team GB rowing squad since 2006 and having made history she is out to make her mark at the 2012 Olympics.

The 23-year-old former Kingston Grammar School student and crew mate Hester Goodsell claimed Britain’s first ever World Cup gold medal in the light weight women’s doubles last month and is out to repeat the feat at this weekend’s final World Cup regatta in Lucerne.

Hosking has only been elevated to the Olympic class event this season having competed in a host of non Olympic disciplines since making her senior debut three years ago.

It means she has progressed under the radar until making a big splash in Munich last time out, but she admits having cleared that first hurdle it is about maintaining her form into next month’s World Championships and beyond.

And Hosking insists she would love to go into the London Games on the crest of a wave.

“Established rowers like Andy Triggs-Hodge will look at each race largely as a stepping stone towards the Olympics. Their results are less important than their performances,” she said.

“We want to be blazing a trail. There isn’t a great history in the event, so we need to be setting the standard and be pushing the other more experienced crews further.

“It is hard to keep the consistency, but that is what we’ve got to do. Winning last time wasn’t our best race ever - we did what we needed to do - but there is plenty more to come.

“There has to be, because other crews will no doubt improve.”

Hosking, a member at Putney-based London rowing Club, began her rowing career at school as a 14-year-old and has risen to become a World Cup gold medalist in the space of just seven years.

The former AFC Wimbledon Ladies player, who works part-time to help fund a full-time training programme, gave up football to pursue her rowing through school and university.

But she admits the taste of success has been a major force “I didn’t really envisage where rowing would take me. I never really set myself goals and I suppose not putting that pressure on myself has helped,“ she added.

“With rowing you get out of it pretty much what you put in. You can control your own destiny, which is very different to a lot of sports - particularly in teams.

“The feeling of winning - and the thought of losing - is motivation enough to get you out of bed to train during the winter. Maybe you do get addicted to it.

“You never get tired of racing in World Cup regattas. You never really get the situation of intense competition against different nations. I love it.”