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Sunday, 3 June 2007, 13:20 GMT 14:20 UK

Britain claim best World Cup haul

GB men's coxless four celebrate Britain won four gold medals - their best haul ever - in the opening World Cup regatta of the year in Linz.

Coxless four Steve Williams, Peter Reed, Andy Hodge and Alex Partridge beat the Netherlands to extend their winning streak to 27 races.

The women's quad, with Kath Grainger at stroke, had clear water with 500m gone and beat China in 6:29.09.

New pair Colin Smith and Matthew Langridge won, as did double scullers Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham.

In all, eight Olympic-class boats took medals, winning the overall event points trophy from Germany.

Alan Campbell, the World Cup holder in the single scull, settled for silver after conceding his length lead at the half-way mark to Czech Ondrej Synek.

Great Britain's performance director David Tanner said: "This was an extremely good start to our season with some outstanding performances from new combinations, especially given the quality of the field."

Britain's coxless four took an early lead, although the Dutch closed the gap before a final burst took the winners clear by two thirds of a length.

"I thought we raced maturely here to win but we won't ever stop trying to improve until the Olympic final", said Hodge.

"We were thrilled to get out quickly and demolish the field early"
Kath Grainger
Stroke, women's quad


Smith and Langridge were in last place at the 1000m mark in their pairs race before accelerating in spectacular style to beat Croatia and Germany in 6:29.77.

Wells and Rowbotham recorded a time of 6:18.9 to beat Germany 1 and Estonia 2.

Meanwhile Grainger was impressed by the early pace of her crew as they began the season looking for their third successive world championship gold.

"We have wanted to get a fast start for the past few seasons but we've never really managed to achieve it," she said.

"We were thrilled to get out quickly and demolish the field early."

There was a silver medal for the women's eight, which settled in behind winners Germany to open a gap on the rest of the field in 6:18.07.

But their male counterparts were less successful, finishing fifth, just over a length behind winners Canada.

Lightweight pair Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase impressed in their first World Cup final race together, although Denmark beat them into second place by three seconds.

The rest of the lightweight men's squad took bronze medals, Daniel Harte and Matt Beechey finishing third in the pair and a new-look four coming in behind China and Italy 1 to gain Britain's first ever World Cup medal in the category.

Lightweight single sculler Andrea Dennis was sixth in her final while, in the women's open-weight events, pair Natasha Howard and Alison Knowles were fifth, six seconds behind winners Australia 4.

The next World Cup regatta is in Amsterdam from 22-24 June.



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Related to this story:

Twelve GB crews reach Linz finals (02 Jun 07 |  Rowing )
GB rowers begin season in style (01 Jun 07 |  Rowing )
GB rowers look to extend streak (31 May 07 |  Rowing )
GB retain coxless four's line-up (26 Apr 07 |  Rowing )
Find out where to start rowing (19 Oct 05 |  Rowing )

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