OLYMPIC champion Matt Gotrel is confident British Rowing's new stars will get the business done on the water again by the time Tokyo 2020 comes around.

The Chipping Campden ace was in the Great Britain team that topped the medal table at Rio 2016 with his men’s eight claiming one of three golds.

But Gotrel, 29, was one of several rowers to retire following the Games as British Rowing went through a big transition.

And while many of the big names are no longer present the double world champion has no doubt a new generation of rowers can follow in their illustrious footsteps.

“At the end of an Olympiad, when you have a successful Rio like we did, a lot of athletes have achieved their goal and, a bit like me, have moved on to life after rowing,” he said.

“It’s a big intake of news guys and they’ve got to find their feet in the team so we’re kind of going through that transition phase now.

“There are definitely a few guys who have been knocking on the door for a while — the likes of Matt Rossiter and guys like that.

“They’ve done it at different levels but they’ve got a lot of natural talent and I think the sculling team is also doing really well. You can look at a lot of those guys.

“They all know what they’re doing and I think they are going to be right up there when it comes to the medal in Tokyo.”

The former international sailor, who also won European silver and bronze, expects the world championships in Bulgaria to provide a good yardstick on where the current crop is at.

Gotrel was speaking in his role as City Champion for Bristol at the inaugural Power8 Sprints event at Bristol Harbour Festival where eight cities battled it out in races over 350 metres.

The innovative knockout contest was launched by British Rowing to attract a new audience to the sport.

The inaugural Power8 Sprints took place in Bristol on July 22. To find out how the action unfolded visit power8sprints.com