Katherine Grainger will begin her final build up to the Beijing Olympics today as she leads Great Britain's women's quadruple scull in their heat at the FISA World Cup in Munich.

The crew, which remains unchanged from the line-up which won World Championship gold on the same course last year, have been in heavy training all winter and this will be the first chance to assess their progress against other nations.

Their main opposition over the weekend is set to come from host nation Germany who will include five-time Olympic Champion Kathrin Boron in their quad.

Aberdeen's Grainger, who is already Britain's most successful ever oarswoman, is bidding to win her third Olympic medal in Beijing.

Britain's campaign in Munich, the first regatta of three in the World Cup series, got off to a solid start on Thursday as the flagship men's crew, the coxless four comfortably won their heat.

With Tom Lucy coming into replace injured Tom James British used a high and aggressive stroke rate to take the lead right from the start easily booking the first of three automatic qualifying spots.