Pete Reed hails GB men's eight after World Cup gold

Gloucestershire's Pete Reed has praised his men's eight team-mates after they recovered from a poor result in the heats to win World Cup gold.

Reed and his Great Britain crew were well-beaten in third in Friday's preliminary race at Eton Dorney.

But they held off the challenge from Poland in Sunday's final race to secure gold in five minutes, 25.93 seconds.

"It's a credit to everyone that we pulled it together so professionally," said double Olympic champion Reed.

"Talk about a rollercoaster. We've been fantastic in training and we had a really bad day on Friday.

"We came off the water [on Friday] and Jurgen [Grobler, coach] was extremely positive and said we were better than that.

"We're better than burying our heads in the sand and wondering what we are going to do to get out of the situation.

"We took the challenge on and knew we were better than that."

It was the first time the GB squad had raced at Olympic venue Eton Dorney since last summer's Games.

And Reed's team-mate Dan Ritchie believes it affected them in Friday's race.

"I think a few of us got swept away with the occasion by being on the home water again," he said.

"We thought we had to prove something and maybe we did too much.

"Everyone is entitled to a bad day at the office but that's what we train for - to try and limit those.

"They do occasionally happen and it did happen in the heat but we showed real class in the final."

Great Britain claimed four gold medals across the weekend and it was Reed's fourth win in a fourth major regatta in the UK.

And the 31-year-old, who won gold in the men's four at London 2012, said the 5,500 strong home crowd played their part.

"It's not like the Olympic regatta, simply because the seating capacity is not the same," added Reed.

"I was expecting a Dorney miaow, but it wasn't, it was a Dorney roar.

"I would like to say thank you to all the people who cheered for us because it really helped."