Tom Ransley helped the GB men's eight power to victory in the heats of the Rio Olympic rowing regatta on Monday afternoon.

The schedule for the entire competition was forced into a reshuffle due to the abandonment of Sunday's racing due to high winds and choppy water.

It meant that the prestigious men's eight heats were brought forward more than five hours to take advantage of the calmer waters early in the Brazilian morning.

Ransley, 30, from Woodchurch near Ashford, and his teammates made the most of the smoother conditions to power out of the start to open up a half-length lead over the Netherlands and New Zealand by the 500m mark and then extended their advantage to a length by the mid-way point of 1km - which they reached just outside of a world-leading time.

With only the winning crew going straight through to the final on Saturday afternoon and the remaining finishers facing a fight to qualify through the repechage round on Wednesday, GB produced a professional second-half keeping their rivals at arm's length to finish just over half a length clear in a time of 5mins 34.23secs with the Netherlands pipping New Zealand into second (5:36.16).

Former King's School, Canterbury, star Ransley, claimed bronze in the eight at London 2012.

That day at Eton Dorney GB led the field until the later stages when powerhouses Germany overhauled them to take gold, with the spent British crew then being pipped by Canada for silver.

Germany lay in wait in the final once again after winning the second heat in Rio in a time of 5:38.22.

The final of the men’s eight is at 3.24pm BST on Saturday, August 13.

On Sunday night TeamGB's men’s hockey team bounced back from a 4-1 defeat to Belgium on day one to draw 2-2 with New Zealand in their second game.

Seven players from Rochester-based Holcombe started for GB, aswell as Chatham-born former Sutton Valence School pupil Ashley Jackson, there were skipper Barry Middleton, Dan Fox, Iain Lewers, Nick Catlin, keeper George Pinner and Sam Ward on the teamsheet.

David Condon opened the scoring for Team GB after two minutes, but the Brits found themselves behind by the 20-minute mark thanks to stunning goals from Kane Russell and Hayden Phillips in the space of five minutes.

An equaliser from Middleton from a superb Lewers cross on 25 minutes secured the draw with both sides spurning chances after the break and Pinner called upon to make two crucial saves and Jackson thwarted from trademark penalty corner drag-flicks at the other end.

GB's women, featuring Susannah Townsend of Canterbury and Holcs stars Maddie Hinch, Shona McCallin, Sam Quek and Nic White return to action on Monday night against India (10pm).

On Monday afternoon Canterbury-raised William Fox-Pitt tackled the mammoth cross-country section of the eventing competition.

Fox-Pitt began the day in the lead of the individual competition following the weekend's dressage but despite a fine showing on the complex course, his mount Chilli Morning collected 20 technical penalty points after refusing one jump and the delay incurred in tempting the stallion over at the second time of asking took the Goodnestone rider - now based in Dorset - over the time target of 10mins 25secs to add another 10.4pts.

His total of 67.4pts after two of the three disciplines saw Fox-Pitt tumble to 13th with Australian Chris Burton, second going into the cross-country, leading with 37.60.

Fox-Pitt admitted: “I had a very good run, it’s just annoying that I went past that third element. It was really unfortunate.

“It was my fault entirely. I went too quickly for him and there was no way I could turn him so he didn’t do anything wrong.

“He is great. He is a lovely horse and to be riding him around the course is a luxury so I’m sad I have wasted it a bit.

“It isn’t a pleasurable course to ride but this isn’t a pleasurable day, it’s a hard work day.

“Watching those first few horses, you could see it was asking tough questions all the way along and you could see most of them didn’t come up with the answers. I hope he jumps well tomorrow.

“We’ll be clutching at any chances we have got but we are not going to be in that enviable position of defending a gold medal so we are going to be doing our best and hope the horses feel good.

"He felt okay at the end but a bit tired. All the horses looked tired at the end of that course though so no surprises.”

The showjumping competition runs from 2pm BST on Tuesday.

Tunbridge Wells' Bryony Shaw endured mixed fortunes in the opening three races of the RS:X Windsurfing competition.

The 2008 bronze medallist was 7th in the opening race but could only finish 20th in race two and then 9th in the third race of the opening day of competition, good enough for 10th place after the opening day with nine more races to come before the medal race.