RICHARD Egington is on course to race in another World Championship final this weekend after Great Britain’s men’s four passed their first test on Sunday.

They sent out a signal of intent, too, relegating defending champions France to second spot in the fourth heat on Slovenia’s picturesque Lake Bled.

The former Lymm High School pupil, who started his career at Warrington Rowing Club, helped the crew set the fastest time of the first round.

In bumpy conditions the quartet, completed by Matt Langridge, Alex Gregory and Tom James, moved away from the French – victors on Lake Karapiro in New Zealand last autumn – in the race’s second half to take victory in 5mins 49.20secs.

It means Egington’s new-look crew remain unbeaten this season with victories at the World Cup – in Munich and Lausanne – and Henley’s Royal Regatta to their name to date.

The quartet headed out to Slovenia on the back of training camps in Austria and Portugal.

Egington said: “It was good to get our first race out of the way.

“We did some awesome stuff on our training camp in Portugal and now we need to step on from this.”

The British crew must wait for the results of the repechage before finding out who they race next on Saturday.

The final follows on Sunday afternoon.

Egington has given the Guardian some exclusive insight to the training that took place on camps in Austria and Portugal immediately prior to the world championships.

High altitude training took place in Austria, followed by peak-heat work in Portugal.

“Heading to Austria did feel like heading to my second home and sometimes an annual prison sentence,” he said.

“The three-hour coach journey from Zurich marks that start of this annual pilgrimage.

“The Army bootcamp feeling is apparent throughout the whole camp. From living in army huts at the foot of the dam to putting out the rowing course on the lake, it's all a bit more hands on and back to basics as a camp theme.

“Silvretta hosts the highest rowable lake in Europe at 2,050m high.

“It fills the criteria Jurgen (chief coach Jurgen Grobler) likes, a lower air pressure which makes the body have to work harder for a given intensity.

“As your breathing rate increases to try and get some of the reduced oxygen into the blood and to the muscles.

“The effect over time at high altitude is the increase in production of blood vessels that surround the muscles. When you digest the theory behind the process, it sounds okay. The reality is it feels really uncomfortable.

“The training over the two-week period we are there is high volume sessions that would be 16k in England. Generally the rule of thumb is add 4k on to each session. At the end of the two weeks this adds up to over 100k.

“Swapping the Austrian Alps for the warmth of Portugal was a change for the better in my opinion.

“The sea-level location, warm temperatures and huge calm lake were just three positives. There we went through more race training pieces, harder intensity which I like; because no-one likes to drive a sports car slowly is the only analogy I can think of.

“So, arriving in Bled we felt in good shape.

“I felt relaxed because I think I've had good preparation to get here.

“Our performances so far this year have been good but I feel we have moved on as a unit so I am feeling confident about what we can do over the next week here in Slovenia.”