ANDY Hodge showed his versatility by helping Great Britain to gold on a historic day at the World Cup in Amsterdam.

Hodge, from Hebden, is normally part of a world-class men's four including Alex Partridge, Steve Williams and Peter Reed.

However, the quartet, who were supplemented by the world champion men's pair, plus James Orme and Marcus Bateman, won the men's eight race.

And the GB squad eight took bronze in the race on a weekend when Britain qualified two crews for a race for the first time.

The British eights, with Hodge's composite squad in front, were leading with a third of the race remaining.

However, China closed and, although they nudged ahead of the squad eight, they failed to catch the new eight, who took gold by half a canvas in a dramatic race for the line.

Great Britain performance director David Tanner said: "What an amazing result for our men's eights.

"Our gold-medal winners demonstrated that they are world-class rowers but the best story for me is the huge step forward that's been taken by our squad eight who took bronze."

Hodge and his colleagues in the quartet are seen as Britain's best gold medal hope at the Beijing Olympics next year.

The third and final World Cup meet, before the World Champion-ships in Munich in August, is mid-July in Lucerne.