ANDY Hodge, the rower from Hebden, has been tipped as Britain's big gold medal hope for the Olympics in Beijing in 2008.

Former Upper Wharfedale school pupil Hodge was part of the Oxford crew which won this year's Boat Race and television experts Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell, both gold medallists themselves, were quick to identify Hodge as the sport's rising star.

Hodge, a charming and self-effacing sportsman who is proud of his Craven roots, acknowledges that, to mix metaphors, he is in a pole position for the British team and has a chance of following in the footsteps of Stephen Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.

"Yes, the Olympics are my big target and I guess the squad has changed a lot with the retirement of Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell so there is a big opportunity there for the next crew," said Hodge, speaking to the Craven Herald as he packed his bags this week to head off to a Great Britain training camp.

"There's a big hole left there and everyone is talking about who will fill those shoes.

"It's great that I have been labelled for it but there is a lot of hard work to get there and it's a long way off.

"But the opportunity is there and I have to try to seize it. It would be awesome if I could."

Hodge is studying a masters degree in water science policy and management, a brand new course, at St Catherine's College and revealed the hard work that has gone into the Boat Race.

His day starts at 7am on the rowing machines found in most gyms for an hour's gruelling work.

Then it's back to the studies until 1.30 when the Oxford crew take to the water for at least an hour and a half's practice sessions before returning home around 5.30pm.

"That's a pretty big commitment with academic work on top," said Hodge, who rates the Boat Race as his biggest moment so far.

"I came to Oxford to do something, not for a laugh, and it means a hell of a lot to have achieved what I set out to do. I am immensely proud of what I have done."

That explains the excessively long hug he was given at the end of the race by Barney Williams. It's a measure of Hodge's progress that Williams was stroke of the Canadian four which so nearly pipped Matthew Pinsent to that fourth successive gold medal in Athens.

"Yes, I've seen it on video and it was a bit of a cuddle," he laughed. "But really it was all about relief. We had been through rough times, Barney, myself and the rest of the crew.

"We were a bunch of guys in it together and we came through and beat our deadly rivals but we knew it had all come to an end and Barney is going to be a real rival from now on. It was the end of a chapter in our lives and a special moment for us."

The race was seen as a battle between strength and technique, with the winning Oxford crew played in the media as the big guys with the power and the vanquished Cambridge crew as the skilful crew with the technique. But Oxford have been quick to point out that they too were a highly skilled crew, the match at least of their rivals in that department, with Hodge in the key role of stroke (the first of the eight rowers in the boat).

He explained that the stroke's job was to communicate with the cox.

"The rhythm comes from the middle of the boat, that's where the dynamic is, where the hard guys are.

"The stroke picks up on that and tells the cox if it can be picked up, if the stroke can be a little longer. It's a big responsibility because you are the link from the crew to the cox but in terms of making the boat go faster, you are just another cog in the wheel."

He also cleared up another mystery - the acquisition of the name Triggs by the television commentators and some of the national media.

"Folks back home in Hebden will know me as Andy Hodge and that's how I describe myself.

"But Triggs is on my passport and birth certificate. It's my father's mother's name, from the Dutch side of the family."