FORMER Evesham rower Alex Gregory MBE and his men’s coxless four made a dominant start on the water at the Rio Olympics.

Despite a strong opening by the South African crew, the Great Britain quartet surged home in heat three in five minutes 55.59 seconds.

Gregory, 32, was joined by Constantine Louloudis, Moe Sbihi and George Nash in the boat as they brushed aside their rivals and laid down a marker.

Second-placed Greece clocked 5.59.65, France 6.00.72 and South Africa 6.01.64.

After the heats, GB were ranked second behind Australia, who managed 5.54.84 in the first race, but ahead of Italy’s 5.56.01.

The event had been held over for a day due to high winds across the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.

GB are the defending Olympic champions in the men’s four after Gregory, Tom James, Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge finished ahead of the Aussies and USA in the A final at London 2012.

This year’s crew now look forward to the semis on Wednesday with the final on Friday.

Gregory attended Bredon Hill Middle School, Ashton-under-Hill, and Evesham’s Prince Henry’s High School.

Meanwhile, Bewdley sailor Alison Young finished 13th in her first qualifying race of 10 in the women’s laser radial class.

Ireland’s Annalise Murphy won the contest with Evi Van Acker from Belgium second and China’s Xu Lijia third.

Medal hopeful Young, 30, was fifth at the London Olympics four years ago.