NORTH-EAST duo Will Fletcher and Kat Copeland strengthened their claims for an Olympic place as they produced strong performances at the GB rowing team’s Olympic-season trials.

Chester-le-Street’s Fletcher led home a regional one-two in the lightweight men’s single and is now a strong favourite to claim one of the lightweight places available at Rio.

Fletcher followed up his maiden trials win at December’s assessment with another powerful display that saw him hold off a strong finish from Northumberland’s Jamie Kirkwood to triumph in a time of 7:13.16.

“I’m obviously really happy,” said Fletcher, who is set to make his Olympic debut this summer. “It’s a great end and start to the season, if you know what I mean. Final trials are over, now we can look forward to the big one – the Olympics.”

Copeland claimed a gold medal in the lightweight double at the 2012 Games in London, and is embroiled in a fierce battle with Charlotte Taylor and Imogen Walsh for the two places available at Rio.

She teamed up with Taylor during last summer’s World Cup season, claiming a silver medal at the World Championships in the process, and the pair are likely to resume their relationship after they filled the top two positions yesterday.

Copeland surged to the front shortly after the 500m mark, overhauling a strong start from Ellie Piggott, but was unable to hold on as Taylor powered through in the final 250m to win by around three feet.

“It was my best race of the regatta,” said Copeland, who is from Stokesley and a member of Tees Rowing Club. “I spoke to my coach before, and we said about really committing in the third 500m, which I think I did. I had nothing left at the end, but all in all, I was really pleased.”

Durham’s Jess Eddie is set to compete in the women’s eight in Rio, and the two-time Olympian proved her well-being as she teamed up with Polly Swann to finish second in the pair.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, who will be strong gold-medal favourites in the pair this summer, triumphed by more than ten seconds, but Eddie and Swann did well to recover from a sluggish start to power their way through for the runner-up spot.

Durham’s Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell teamed up with Matt Tarrant to win the B final of the men’s pair, while Tees RC’s Tina Stiller finished third in the A final of the women’s single behind Vicky Thornley and Holly Nixon.

GB performance director Sir David Tanner will now digest the results of the trials before selecting the squad for the European Championships, which take place in Germany at the start of May.

“We’ve had an exceptional set of trials, which is suitable for an Olympic year,” said Tanner. “We’ve had some great racing, and it was good to see the standard of our Olympians stepping up with some top-level performances. We still have some questions as we move towards our crew formation.”