Double for golden girl Grainger

SCOTLAND'S Katherine Grainger added another glorious chapter to her outstanding rowing career when she led her GB squad-mates to two golds in the final round of the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne yesterday to win the overall World Cup in both of her events.

In the morning finals, along with Anna Watkins, Grainger completed an unbeaten World Cup season in the double sculls category, and, in the afternoon, these two were joined by Annie Vernon and Beth Rodford to control and win a tense quadruple sculls final. In doing so, the quad rectified the only flaw of their season when they finished second in Munich three weeks ago.

In the doubles final, Germany took the lead for the first few strokes, but by the first timing mark at 500 metres, Grainger and Watkins were just ahead. After this, Australia crept into the picture and they were second at the halfway mark with the British duo holding a lead of over a second. Grainger and Watkins stretched this slightly over the rest of the course and crossed the finish line just over a length up on Australia, with a new USA crew in third placed as the Germans faded to last.

Speaking about the double sculls event, Grainger said: "I don't think anything would have stopped us today. We wanted to stamp our personality on the event. We've been unbeaten all season and we had one race to go". Some three hours later, Grainger was back on the start line for the quads final.

Despite a sluggish-looking first stroke, the British crew took the early lead, just ahead of current world champions Ukraine.

In the closing stages, Germany produced a major charge but, racing between these two crews, Grainger kept in control to win by just two-thirds of a length with Ukraine second and Germany third.

On this race, Grainger said: "We wanted to make up for Munich. We had a lot of heart and soul to give and knew that if we were level at halfway, it was ours for the taking."

Speaking more generally about two performances that provide even more evidence to enhance her position as the world's best female rower, Grainger added: "We knew coming into Lucerne was going to be tough.

"It's the last World Cup and it's always the one that people want to win; it's got the best numbers; it's got the best standard; so I know how tough it is to come here and win. We wanted to show how good we could be here and...two golds, the dream result."

With four golds, four silvers and three bronze medals, Britain retained the team World Cup.

The two other golds came in the men's open and lightweight fours; the silvers were won by Alan Campbell in single sculls, and in lightweight double sculls, men's pair and men's double; while the men's quad and men's and women's eight, with Edinburgh's Lindsey Maguire aboard, took bronzes.