Pete Reed immediately turned his attentions to securing the hat-trick of Olympic titles after leaving the British Rowing Championships with a gold medal around his neck.

Former University of Oxford student Reed joined the great and the good of his sport at Nottingham’s Holme Pierrepont National Water Sports Centre for the first day of the British Rowing Championships on Saturday.

The 34-year-old took his place in Leander Club’s A coxless four – the same boat he won gold in at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 – alongside Stewart Innes, Matt Langridge and Constantine Louloudis.

And the quartet showed their class as they came home first in 06:06.42 minutes, almost three seconds ahead of their nearest challengers.

This was a good season opener for Reed, who hopes it will end with a third gold medal in Rio to add to his collection.

“I’m aiming for Rio this year,” he said. “I won in Beijing and in London as well, at the Olympics, and going for my third after London was a big call, do I want to? Am I able to?"

“I’m one of the older athletes now and I decided clearly that I did want to go for it again. After I had made that decision, I chucked myself into it whole heartedly."

“We’ve won three World Championships since London so things are looking good, but we shouldn’t take anything for granted."

“It’ll be tougher, harder, more pressure, but it means everything to me. It’s less than ten months away now and we just don’t have time to waste, I need to be better than I ever have and when we’ve been so good in the past, that’s going to be very hard to do."

“It’s staggering to think we’re so close to Rio now, it’s going to fly by.”

But while Reed insists it is all systems go for Rio, he admits life after Brazil is trickier to predict."

“I’ve obviously thought about what I’m going to do after Rio but I haven’t made up my mind yet,” he added.

“Everything points towards retiring, no matter what happens in Rio, although of course I’d like to win."

“But I don’t want to rule out carrying on. You’re never too old. If my body is still up for it, and more importantly in my head as well – if I want to carry on and I’m hungry for another four years I’ll see."

"It’s four years of training for a chance to race over six minutes, it’s so many hours work. If I want to do it then I will."

“Otherwise I’ve got a wonderful wife at home, I’ve got family and friends I haven’t seen for 12 years and I want to do something else with my life. I don’t want time to tick away but at the moment I love rowing, training and racing and I’ve got to concentrate on Rio.”

As Leander Club launched their ‘Row to Rio’ campaign Pete Reed spoke of Leander’s place as the most successful rowing club in the world, with 111 Olympic medals won by its members.