By Will Jennings in Paris

GRAEME THOMAS believes Britain’s quadruple scullers’ aggressive tactics paid off after booking their place in the Olympic final.

The experienced Preston rower, 35, combined with Thomas Barras, Callum Dixon and Matt Hayward to finish second in their heat at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Saturday.

And that propelled them into Wednesday’s hotly-anticipated final, where they will hope to win a precious rowing medal after Team GB’s Tokyo horror-show on the water three years ago.

Britain endured sixth fourth-place finishes and failed to win a gold medal for the first time since 1980 in the Japanese capital.

But Thomas hopes they can right those wrongs and that gaining a psychological edge over their rivals early on can fire them to glory.

He said: “We wanted to get in people’s heads.

“We wanted to do something in the first 1000m that exceeds our capability.

“Thankfully we had that capability to push on so we’re happy enough with that.”

Dixon, 24, added: “What gives you confidence is, we have a saying which is ‘the water, the wind and the waves don’t know it’s the Olympic Games.’

“It’s different because you’ve got five other boats side by side but actually internally, we’re running the same processes and rowing the same pattern so there’s a lot of confidence to be taken there.”

Britain’s rowers make up some of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.

Thomas and his quadruple scullers finished second behind rowing powerhouse the Netherlands but ahead of Germany, Norway and Romania to keep their hopes in the French capital alive.

They will now enjoy three days off before turning their attention to a seismic showdown with the Dutch, Italy and Poland in Seine-et-Marne, the rowing venue for the Games located over 25km east of Paris.

Haywood, 25, said: “You’ve just got to think of it as another race, as soon as you start to think of it as the Olympics, the nerves are going to build, the panic is going to set in when actually there are fewer crews.

“We’ve faced them all before, it’s all the same people so we focus on that.”

With more than £30M a week raised for Good Causes, including vital funding into elite and grassroots sport, National Lottery players support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to live their dreams and make the nation proud, as well as providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport.  To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk