Molesey Boat Club and London Rowing Club have featured heavily in Sir David Tanner's GB rowing squad for the European Championships in Belgrade.

Molesey rowers Andrew Triggs Hodge, Moe Sbihi and George Nash – all world champions in the eight boat last year – will take three of the seats in the men’s four.

James Foad and Phil Congdon are in the men's eight, but Ruth Walczak, a World Championship bronze medallist in the lightweight women’s single scull, misses out.

From LRC, Jessica Eddie, Imogen Walsh and Mark Aldred will compete in the women’s eight, the lightweight double scull and the lightweight men’s four respectively.

Charlotte Taylor – a relative new comer – of Putney Town Rowing Club is the lightweight women’s single sculler.

The European regatta in Serbia is the first of the season for Great Britain, having decided against competing in the World Cup I event in Sydney, and Tanner hopes this year – the second of the Rio 2016 Olympiad – will build on last season’s success.

“This is a very important year in the Olympic cycle,” he said.

“I see this as the year where we can lay down some really top performances in preparation for Olympic qualification in a year or so’s time.

“We had some great results in Chungju (in last year’s World Championships in Korea) we had new blood in the team and good finals results and good medal results, but we’re very ambitious and want to step on again.”

Great Britain have not previously set up to be so competitive in the European Championships – in the previous seven regattas since its re-introduction, the team has won just eight medals, and is without a gold.

This year, though, with the event coming earlier in the year Tanner hopes to use it to kick off the season.

“This is the first time for us that the Euros kicks off the summer season,” he added. “And we, with the rowers, want to make this a special event because the accolade of being a European champion is a big thing.

“We’re going to the championships proud to be part of the Euro campaign and ambitious to perform.

"We see this as something special."

The regatta includes 17 boat events, 14 Olympic class and three internationals, and begins on May 30 with the finals on June 1.