Rio 2016: Rowers Katherine Grainger and Vicky Thornley must wait for Team GB fate

London 2012 gold medallist Katherine Grainger and women's double sculls partner Vicky Thornley must wait to be confirmed in Team GB's rowing squad for the Rio Olympics.

The names of 43 of the 47 competitors were announced on Wednesday.

Grainger, 40, and Thornley, 28, both failed to make the women's eight.

But performance director Sir David Tanner said it was his "confident intention" to get them back into the doubles boat.

He also said the team were targeting six medals, three below the nine they won at London 2012.

• Great Britain and Northern Ireland's full team for Rio

Grainger won one of those nine medals alongside then partner Anna Watkins, but has failed to find the same form after taking a two-year break and pairing up with Wales' Thornley.

Should she win a medal at her fifth Games in Rio, she would become Britain's most decorated female Olympian, having won silver medals in Sydney, Athens and Beijing.

Her quest to add to her medal haul looked in tatters after the Scot and Thornley tested against the women's eight crew but fell short of their team-mates' times on Monday.

But Tanner said: "It is my confident intention very soon, to be announcing them back in their double and racing for Team GB at the Rio Games.

"There are one or two steps before we get there but very, very soon."

Olympic champions Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, who won Britain's first gold medal of London 2012, have both been selected for Rio and will aim to defend their title in the women's pair.

"It would be really special - no female British crew has ever defended an Olympic title in rowing so that's what we aim to go and do," said Scotland-based Stanning.

"We've been training really hard because we know that the race we won in London wouldn't be good enough to win in Rio. We've got to keep improving because the rest of the world is improving around us."

Lightweight women's double scull champion Katherine Copeland will seek to defend her crown in Rio alongside Games debutant Charlotte Taylor.

Alex Gregory, who won gold in the men's four in London, teams up with Mohamed Sbihi,George Nash and Constantine Louloudis - all of whom won bronze in the eight at the last Games.

Two-time Olympic champions Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge have been named among the group who will form the men's eight, pair and two reserves.

The men's pair are yet to be decided for Rio but Stewart Innes and Alan Sinclair, plus Nathaniel Reilly-O'Donnell and Matthew Tarrant will race off at the World Cup in Poznan, starting on 17 June, to seal the final crew on the men's team.