OLYMPIC and world champion Andy Hodge made a winning start to the new season as he helped Molesey to coxless fours gold at the British Championships in Nottingham.

The 35-year-old from Hebden, and the crew of James Foad, George Nash and Mohamed Sbihi, made light of gusty conditions at Holme Pierrepont to win the A final in 6min 49.3sec – five seconds clear of a strong ISIS crew. Leander B completed the podium.

Hodge said: "That was probably one of my easiest headwind races. We still had to work but everything went smoothly and it was a superb Molesey performance.

"We had challenging conditions out there but we identified a couple of key points that we were going to hang our entire rhythm on and we managed to deliver on them much better in the final than we did in the heat and semi."

Hodge also won a bronze in the men's eight the following day – but not in the way he expected.

Gusts of up to 40mph meant the championships had to be cut short after the morning's time trials, in which Hodge had helped Moseley A post the third-fastest run.

He was joined in the bronze-medal crew by Dave Bell, Philip Congdon, Henry Fieldman, Foad, Karl Hudspith, Nash, Sbihi and Josh Tonnar.

Gold went to Leander A and Oxford Brookes University won silver.