Pinsent pinches indoor title

Pinsent (right) edged out pairs partner Cracknell

Matthew Pinsent defeated pairs partner and fellow Sydney Olympic champion James Cracknell to win the Men's Open Heavyweight title in Birmingham on Sunday.

Three-time Olympic champion Pinsent edged out Cracknell by just one-tenth of a second.

The pair were neck-and-neck for the first half of the 2,000m ergometer race.

In the third 500m, reigning champion Cracknell opened up a gap of 0.6 seconds.

I knew James would go off harder and I would finish harder

Matthew Pinsent

But Pinsent then began to carve away at his opponent's lead and snatched victory.

His winning time was was five minutes 47.5 seconds with Cracknell second on 5:47.6.

Behind them there was a dead head for third between GB double sculler Ian Lawson and world coxless four champion Steve Williams on 5:54.6.

"We've been winding each other up over the last week but we've not been letting it get out of hand," said Pinsent.

"I knew James would go off harder and I would finish harder.

"I could see Matt coming back at me on my screen," said Cracknell.

I knew I had to have something on him going into the last bit but it just wasn't enough."

Other British results

Olympic silver medallist Katherine Grainger came third in the Women's Open Heavyweight.

Grainger led for 1800m but was overtaken in the final sprint by Dutchwoman Hurnet Dekkers.

Lightweight double sculler Tim Male came late to finish second in the Men's Open Lightweight event.

Helen Casey won the Women's Open Lightweight event in 7:05.8, improving her own Championships record by more than eight seconds.

The entire national squad was entered in the Championships as part of the winter assessment programme.

However, several squad members were excused with illness or injury.

They included Olympic eights champions Luka Grubor and Kieran West and veteran lightweight Peter Haining who were all unwell.

BBC ONE will be showing highlights of the Championships in Grandstand at 1330 GMT on Saturday 24 November