Rowing: Grainger strikes gold on succesful day for GB team in Switzerland

There were gold medals for Scots Katherine Grainger and Heather Stanning and a fourth-place finish for Lindsey Maguire in another successful outing for the GB Rowing Team yesterday.

Ten medals, including four golds, were won in total at the third and final Samsung World Rowing Cup of the season in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Aberdeen's Grainger, 35, rowing with Staffordshire's Anna Watkins, 28, in the women's double scull faced stiff opposition in the shape of 2009 world champions Magdalena Fularczyk and Julia Michalska of Poland, along with Australia's Kim Crow and Kerry Hore.

However, the British combination, unbeaten in 2010 and reigning world champions, had taken a three-quarter length lead by the halfway point over Crow and Hore. The Australians took back a quarter of a length but the British were rating lower. The positions remained the same as the crews entered the final 1500m with Ukraine in third.

That was the cue for Grainger and Watkins to put on the power to move out to a clearwater advantage. The Australians came back towards the finish but did not have enough in the tank and Great Britain won by almost exactly two seconds.

"We knew we would be up against it today," said Grainger. "It was a fantastic tactical race and a great experience."

Lossiemouth's Heather Stanning, rowing with Penzance's Helen Glover, stunned the world champions from New Zealand to win gold in the women's pair. Pre-race predictions had suggested the final would be a close-run thing between the 2010 world champions, Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown, and Stanning and Glover - the world silver medallists.

From the start the British crew signalled their intention to take the fight to the New Zealanders. They led at the 500m and 1000m marks and by 1500m had over two seconds over their rivals, who were beginning to fight back. By the grandstands the New Zealanders had the overlap on the British crew and their boat speed was clearly faster. They edged partially in front but the British showed their mettle, and hauled them back to win in 7:00.66 and achieve a significant milestone in their development since setting out as part of the GB Rowing Team's Start talent identification scheme.

"It was hard work but it was worth it", said Stanning. "We knew we had the speed so we just needed to get on with it".

The women's eight, stroked by Edinburgh's Lindsey Maguire, were drawn in lane one next to Canada with the world and Olympic champions from the USA in lane four. Canada and the USA grappled with each other at the front of the race and the British eight was locked in a chasing battle with the Netherlands throughout the middle 1000m. At 1500m gone, the British boat was fourth but still in contention for the podium. All credit to the much-improved Dutch combination at that stage as they put on a push to secure bronze with GB close but not quite close enough.

The GB Rowing Team for the 2011 World Championships in Bled, Slovenia, from 28 August to 4 September will be announced on Tuesday 19 July.