SARAH Winckless has vowed to take revenge on Russia when the Beijing Olympics get underway in the summer.

Marlow's double world champion rower missed 2007 with a knee injury, but is back to top speed now and closing in on pay-back time.

She was part of the Great Britain crew that was robbed of a World Championship gold in front of her home fans in 2006, when the Russians pipped them at the post at Dorney Lake only to be stripped of gold five months later when one of the Russian rowers failed a drugs test.

Eight more Russians have subsequently been banned for similar reasons.

Winckless said: "I saw the Russians in Seville this winter. I was surprised at my reaction, they gave me motivation and energy to do well this year.

"They took winning in front of our home crowd away from us and we want our revenge."

It's a view shared by Marlow training mate and four-time world champion Katherine Grainger.

She said: "It is rare to compete at home. We were favourites and were beaten in the last ten strokes. It was devastating, I was haunted for months."

Grainger and Winckless admit that dealing with that defeat' was difficult - frequently they would end up disecting the race through the night and even after the Russians were disqualified the impact of losing was only marginally diminished.

Grainger said: "Russia were disqualified. It was the worst way to win a World Championship, yet it made us stronger. We lost and didn't want that feeling again."

This will be Grainger's third Olympics. She has two silvers to her name already but believes, at 32, she is just hitting her prime.

She said: "Eight years ago, I didn't know what I was doing. I was very new and just didn't want to let anyone down.

"I was the weak link. Now, I feel some responsibility and know so much more."