GREAT Britain’s eight crew were beaten by a familiar foe as Germany won the opening Rowing World Cup event in Serbia.

York City Rowing Club star Tom Ransley and his GB team-mates have played second fiddle to their German counterparts for the last three years.

And the countdown to the London Olympics later this summer started with Germany in control once again.

GB led the final by half-a-second at the 1,000-metre mark, but world champions Germany over-turned that advantage in the third 500m and then drew clear to win by more than three seconds in five minutes, 26.78 seconds.

University of York graduate Ransley, 26, and his crew held off the Netherlands to take second place, with Poland finishing fourth.

In the heats on Friday, the GB eight had been in impressive form as they were never headed in clocking 5:28.29 – about a second ahead of runners-up Poland.

Germany clocked 5:31.44 in their heat, beating the Netherlands.

The Netherlands won the repechage to book their place in the final along with Poland, who finished second.

All 12 GB crews that took part in yesterday’s finals won medals, a haul that included four golds, six silvers and two bronze.

Britain also took the overall World Cup trophy by 79 points to Germany’s 47.

“It’s been a very good day.” said GB Rowing Team performance director David Tanner. “To win 12 medals from 12 starts is as good if not better than I would have hoped before coming here.

“It was a good field here, but we know there are more teams to come in for the next World Cups so we will not be sitting back on our laurels from here.”

The second World Cup regatta will be held in Lucerne on May 25, 26 and 27, with the third and final meeting of the series in Munich on June 15, 16 and 17.

The Olympic regatta gets under way at Eton Dorney on Saturday, July 28.