THESE are still early days for dress rehearsals, but this week’s world rowing championships have already assumed an Olympian scale. More than 1,100 competitors from 64 countries will take to the waters of Dorney Lake, near Eton, over the coming days, a number that would have approached a record if four of the African countries designated for development — Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya and Morocco — had overcome the bureaucracy which denied them visas to travel to Britain.

“Coming down here for the first time, the first thing I thought was not ‘here is a world championship venue, but here is an Olympic venue’,” said Steve Williams, the sole survivor from the golden four in Athens.

“We’re all relishing the prospect of performing in front of our own crowd and I’m certainly relishing the idea of the Games coming in six years’ time.”

To add to the real sense of wellbeing in British rowing, a six-year deal with Siemens was signed last month, ensuring unprecedented financial and technological support for a squad whose lead boats already enjoy sponsorship from Camelot. Television coverage also promises to be Olympic quality, with the BBC broadcasting four days of the championships. Yet, with their two highest-profile figures in Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent safely in retirement, these were supposed to be

lean times for British rowing, a sport which traditionally penetrates public consciousness once every four years when gold medals are demanded.

Instead, Britain’s challenge for medals at the world championships, the halfway point in the Olympic cycle, is stronger and broader across all categories — heavyweights, lightweights, men, women, scullers and sweep rowers — than during the heyday of Redgrave, Pinsent and Co. The men’s coxless four of Williams, Alex Partridge, Peter Reed and Andy Hodge has assumed the mantle of invincibility from the gold medal winners in Sydney and Athens. Alan Campbell has emerged as a genuine contender in the single sculls, while the women’s squad, more decorated than the men in Athens, is led by the quadruple sculls, who, like the men’s coxless four, will be defending their title from Gifu in Japan a year ago.

“Since Athens, the standard of the squad has risen,” says David Tanner, the team’s performance director.

“The challenge is to turn that into medals at major championships. Based on this season, there is a greater strength across the team than ever before.”

As significant for the future has been the progress of a generation of athletes eyeing the ultimate glory of winning Olympic gold here in 2012. No race will be more keenly anticipated than the final of the women’s double sculls where Annie Vernon and Anna Bebington, two 23-year-old graduates of Cambridge University, are aiming to crown a promising debut international season by inflicting a rare defeat on the Evers-Swindell twins, Georgina and Caroline, the world and Olympic champions from New Zealand.

“They’ve not really been beaten for four years,” says Bebington. “But they’ve got to be beaten one day, and what’s stopping us from being the ones to beat them?” Reaching the final, though, will be the first step both for the women’s double and for Matt Wells and Steve Rowbotham, who will face stiff competition from Iztok Cop and Luka Spik, true legends of the sport, in the men’s double. When the Slovenians are not arguing with each other, they are arguing with their national federation; when they are doing neither, they are winning gold medals.

“The only thing that scares me about this facility is the wind,” said Cop, remembering perhaps the gusting crosswind which reduced the 2005 World Cup event at Dorney to near farce. Fingers will be crossed that the wind stays away or at least blows down the 2km course. The lure for British crews is to match one of Redgrave’s numerous achievements and become world champions in front of their home crowd.