Molesey Boat Club’s comeback king Greg Searle secured his place in the GB Rowing Team’s training camp in Portugal this week, but admitted he had to draw on all his Olympic experience to do it.

The 37-year-old former Hampton School student held off a late challenge from Brendan Crean to win the single sculls B final at the GB Rowing Winter Assessment at Eton-Dorney on Sunday.

The 1992 coxed pairs Olympic champion - alongside brother Jonny and teeary-eyed cos Garry Herbert - came out of retirement at the end of last year and is hoping to land a place in the GB squad for the 2012 London Games.

Sunday’s victory is the first step on that path and Searle, also an Olympian in 1996 and 2000, admitted it was a tough test of his credentials.

“It's always satisfying to win races, but it needed fighting spirit,” he said.

“It was the first time in ten years that I’ve really had to dig deep and perform.”

Molesey Boat Club captain and Beijing coxless fours champions Andrew Triggs-Hodge won the men’s pairs - alongside Pete Reed - by two seconds ahead of Alex Partridge and Alex Gregory.

Molesey clubmates Tom Solesbury and Tom James, and James Foad and Mo Sbihi trailed in fifth and sixth respectively.

“It’s kind of satisfying to have raced on the 2012 course for the first time in this Olympiad," added Triggs-Hodge.

“We had a good race. Alex and Alex had a strong race, but we felt good.”