Triple gold joy for GB

Great Britain won three gold medals in a superb opening finals session at the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne.

The men's four, women's pair and women's double scull pairing all served notice of their potential for Olympic success with victories, with the potential for more wins to follow in the afternoon session.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning kicked off Britain's golden morning when they held off a strong field to win the women's pair event, building on a strong start to top the podium in seven minutes 2.14 seconds ahead of the United States, with New Zealand's world champions Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown back in third.

Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger carried on the British momentum as they powered clear in the double scull, leaving Poland to take silver after a tight battle with Germany.

The men's four of Alex Gregory, Peter Reed, Tom James and Andrew Triggs-Hodge produced Sunday morning's most dramatic British win, coming from half a length behind leaders Australia to take the lead in the final 20 strokes and eventually win by over a second.

Reed said afterwards: "We had a feeling before the race that they would try to do something special. That's the way they raced in Bled last year and in the Olympic final as well.

"That race reminded me a lot of the Olympic final from Beijing. The Australian boat is always very classy but moving past them in the last 500 (metres) is something we hadn't seen from our crew yet and that can be massively improved. An exciting race and good for the event - really pleased to get one up."

Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase finished a disappointing sixth in the lightweight men's double and George Nash and Will Satch were fifth in the men's pair, as were Sophie Hosking and Kat Copeland in the lightweight women's double scull.

Cameron Nichol and Nathaniel Reilly-O'Donnell won the men's pair B final and Stephen Rowbotham, Charles Cousins, Tom Solesbury and Matthew Wells won the equivalent race in the men's quadruple scull, with Olivia Carnegie-Brown and Jo Cook third in the women's pair B event.

The lightweight men's four of Paul Mattick, Rob Williams, Richard Chambers and Chris Bartley head up the challenge for further success in the afternoon session, with Britain also represented in the men's and women's eight, women's quadruple scull, men's single and men's double finals.