A WORCESTERSHIRE rower and Olympic Gold medal winner says he “neither happy or unhappy” about Team GB pulling out of the world cup.

Zac Purchase, who won gold at the Beijing Olympics and is a former member of Upton Rowing Club, was speaking after the squad pulled out of the competition in Hamburg, Germany, over the E-coli food poisoning outbreak.

“It was an executive decision as we don’t have a huge amount of say in terms of that,” he said.

“Our focus is on training and we let the team’s management work out what’s best for us.

“Obviously we like rowing and we would probably err on preferring to race, particularly after a strong result in Munich (the first leg).”

The team took away five gold medals from Munich, but crews could now lose out on overall category wins as they will miss out on the second leg in Hamburg.

The final leg of the world cup takes place in Lucerne in Switzerland in July.

Meanwhile, Team GB rowers are training in Reading in Berkshire. They were due to fly to Germany on Wednesday, June 15.

“It is a lost opportunity to get medals but in the grand scheme of things, with the World Championships this year and the Olympics next year it’s important to put it in context,” said Mr Purchase.