Great Britain laid down a marker ahead of Saturday's men's four final with a thrilling victory over arch gold medal rivals Australia in today's semi-final.

Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Tom James and Alex Gregory hit back from a length down to row through the Australians with a massive push in the last 500 metres and complete a confidence-boosting victory.

Britain are looking to extend their golden dynasty in the men's four to 16 years following Olympic triumphs in Sydney, Athens and Beijing.

Australia claimed after winning the Munich World Cup regatta in June that their tactic of leading from the front had "scared the hell" out of Britain.

Today's performance from the British crew will have gone a long way to de-bunk that claim - and it set up another sensational showdown for gold on Saturday.