London 2012: Stephen Rowbotham aiming for rowing gold
Last updated on .From the section Olympics
Great Britain's Stephen Rowbotham believes the men's quadruple scull are good enough to win gold at London 2012.
The 31-year-old Somerset rower is hoping to surpass the bronze medal he secured in the men's double scull in Beijing in 2008.
"We're ranked seventh in the world so I'm not arrogant enough to talk up my gold medal prospects," Rowbotham told BBC Points West.
"But if I didn't believe I could win it then I shouldn't be doing this sport."
The GB quad scull team have had little success at Olympic level in recent years after failing to qualify for Beijing and, four years previously, finishing second-to-last in Athens.
But Rowbotham added: "I don't race to come second, third, fourth of fifth - I race to come first.
"Ultimately, it's my dream to get a gold medal. We got a bronze in Beijing and we want to do better in London.
"We're a new boat, we're getting better every day and we will get quicker. We'll be pushing up into those top three places but it will be about who can do it on the day."
In this year's World Cup Series, Rowbotham raced in the quadruple scull, finishing seventh in both Belgrade and Lucerne.
Along with Charles Cousins, Tom Solesbury and Matthew Wells, he will compete in Munich next week in their last race before the Olympics, and their focus has now turned to improving their speed.
"We need to get quicker," admitted Rowbotham. "The whole world is trying to get quicker as well.
"We're just taking it session by session. All I want to do is make my boat quicker in the next session and go day-to-day.
"We're just thinking about how we can go quicker than the Croatians, the Germans, the French, or whoever it is. You just have to make sure you're ahead of them on the finish line."
