RICHARD Egington and the TeamGB men's eight are through to the Olympics final.

They led from start to finish in this morning's repechage, holding off a fierce challenge from Olympic champions Canada as both crews go through to join Germany and USA in Wednesday's final.

Former Lymm High School pupil Egington, who started his career with Warrington Rowing Club and whose family home is in High Legh, now has a great chance to at least match the silver medal won in the eight in Beijing four years ago.

TeamGB went into action on Lake Dorney this morning as the second fastest boat of the heats and were determined to get off to a strong start.

They were half a length in front by the 500m mark and held that until around 100m to go when Canada and Netherlands inched away at the deficit but Egington and company were roared home by a 30,000 crowd at Eton Dorney and were able to hold on and win in 5:26.85.

Wednesday's final is scheduled to start at 10.30am.