ROWING WORLD CUP: British four hold off Australian challenge to claim gold

Posted: Sunday 27th May 2012 | 11:55

GREAT Britain stormed to three golds at the Rowing World Cup - with the flagship men's four continuing their unbeaten season in Lucerne

After setting a new world best time in the heats - erasing a ten-year old mark - hopes were high for Alex Gregory, Peter Reed, Tom James and Andrew Triggs Hodge.

But they were given a real race by Australia, who they only overhauled in the final 20 strokes to claim victory.

“We had a feeling before the race that they would try to do something special," admitted Reed.

"That race reminded me a lot of the Olympic final from Beijing. The Australian boat is always very classy but moving past them in the last 500 metres is something we hadn’t seen from our crew yet and that can be massively improved.

"It was an exciting race and good for the event - we're really pleased to get one up."

Heather Stanning paid tribute to women's pair team-mate Helen Glover after they won their second consecutive World Cup title and claimed the scalps of New Zealand world champions Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scowen, who finished third.

“It was a really good race for us. Helen made some fantastic calls and that meant all I had to do was focus on what I was doing," said Stanning.

And Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger continued to underline their Olympic potential with victory in the the women’s double sculls, despite a strong challenge from a newly-resurgent Polish crew.

But there was disappointment for Olympic and world champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter in the lightweight double sculls. Clearly out of sorts they finished a distant sixth.