ROWING star Zac Purchase returns to international action in the World Cup series in Austria this weekend for the first time since taking the world lightweight singles title last September.

The 21-year old former King's School Worcester rower is racing in a new double scull combination with the man he narrowly beat at the British trials, Mark Hunter from Steve Redgrave's Henley-based Leander Club.

Worcester Rowing Club's world silver medallist Matt Beechey is also in action in the 72kg pair with London's Daniel Harte in a 57-strong GB team.

Purchase said: "Sadly there's no singles in the Olympics, so I've got to try the GB double if I want to race in Beijing next year.

"And we need to qualify the boat for this year's world championships in Germany by finishing in the top 10, so it's important to make sure the boat is on the pace from the start."

Purchase took 2005 world silver in the singles in Japan behind Olympic bronze medallist Vasileios Polymeris before landing gold eight months ago in world record time at Eton's Dorney Lake.

And he narrowly beat Hunter - eighth last year in the doubles - at April's GB trials in Belgium, rowing through the Thames-based sculler in the last 500m to win by a length.

But as Greece's Polymeris found finishing only ninth in doubles last year on the 2012 London Olympic regatta course, the lightweight two-man event is ultra-competitive and there are no guarantees of transferring singles success into the bigger boat.

It's not simply a question of putting two fast singlers together, but whether their styles can be gelled in one of the most technically difficult boats.

Whether Purchase, who started his career at Upton Rowing Club, can make the switch will be keenly anticipated this weekend in Linz in a field that includes the Danish world champions Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist and Polish Olympic champions Tomasz Kucharski and Robert Sycz.

It won't be a disaster if the duo don't medal in their huge 34-boat field as they have only been together since April's GB trials, but a place in the six-boat final will show whether they have the pace to challenge in Beijing.

A good performance will set them up for next month's World Cup regatta in Amsterdam, followed by July's event in Lucerne, Switzerland and then the worlds at the end of August in Munich.

Meanwhile Beechey, 30, will be desperate to impress in the pair after losing his place in the Olympic class four. Last year at Eton he helped the GB four to a first world final finish in nine years, finishing fifth, and needs to win a place back in the bigger boat to earn a trip to China.