Heather Stanning believes she and Helen Glover still have plenty to give after successfully defending their women’s pair world title in France.
The first GB crew in action, Stanning and Glover didn’t disappoint as they shot out of the blocks to lead by three-quarters of a length after just 250m.
And from there out the London 2012 gold medallists didn’t let off, leading by three seconds at the halfway stage on their way to crossing the line in 6:52.99 minutes to finish ahead of New Zealand by almost four seconds.
But despite the dominant victory the pair insist they are not about to rest on their laurels with the Rio Olympics looming large on the horizon.
“We have worked very, very hard and it’s exciting because we feel there are more improvements to come,” Stanning said.
Glover added: “We wanted to feel the pressure here of defending a title because that is what we will have to do in Rio.”
Elsewhere, James Foad and Matt Langridge added a silver medal in the equivalent boat behind the World and Olympic champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of New Zealand.
Both GB lightweight doubles also won silver with Charlotte Taylor and Kat Copeland capping their debut season in style while Will Fletcher and Richard Chambers gave home-crowd favourites Stany Delayer and Jeremie Azou of France a run for their money before settling for runner-up ahead of the defending World champions Norway.
A bronze came from the men’s four of Scott Durant, Alan Sinclair, Tom Ransley and Stewart Innes in a race won by Italy, but the men’s quadruple scull of Graeme Thomas, Sam Townsend, Charles Cousins and Peter Lambert finished outside of the medals in fourth.
© Sportsbeat 2015