The British Olympic champion women's pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, who set a world best time of 6min 50.61sec, the new British men's flagship of the four, adding world gold to European, and the peerless Kiwi pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, securing another gold in the men's pair a day after winning on their debut in the coxed men's pair.

There was a shock, however, in the lightweight men's double sculls, where the French pair who had set a world best time of 6:08.64 in the heats, Jeremie Azou and Stany Delayre, were beaten to the gold, not by their expected rivals, Norway's defending champions  Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli, but by the South African crew of James Thompson  and  John Smith, both Olympic champions from the lightweight four.

All three crews rowed inside the world best mark.

Azou and Delayre got to the first 500 metres mark a little in front with just over one second separating the top five boats.

The French held the lead through the middle of the race with Italy the closest challengers.

It was now into the final sprint and Thompson and Smith were rating 44 and closing on the French with Brun and Strandli also in the medal mix.

Jeremie Azou and Stany Delayre, favourites for gold in the lightweight men's double sculls after setting a world best time in qualifying, were beaten to the world title today by South Africa
©Getty Images

In the last metre of the race Delayre looked round, a moment of hesitation which coincided with South Africa's final effort, as they crossed for a new world best time of 6:05.36, with the French crew recording 6:05.45.

Norway took bronze in 06:05.79.

"I didn't realise we did it, I can't believe it," said Smith.

Azou, meanwhile, commented: "We did a good race with two little mistakes at the end but it was good.

"We are disappointed and we need time to understand."

Britain's Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, George Nash and Andrew Triggs Hodge maintained their domination of the men's fours, but after getting the early lead they like to establish they were made to work to get away from the 2013 bronze medallists United States before taking gold in 5:40.24, with the silver medallists clocking 5:42.09.

Australia,silver medallists last time, beat the host nation to bronze, recording 5:43.47.

."It was really tough out there but in the second 1000 we pushed USA and really dominated," said Triggs Hodge.

Glover and Stanning, together again after the latter took off a year to serve with the British Army in Afghanistan, started at a 47 stroke rate and they had already taken a boat length before the 500m mark.

Behind them the Romanians Cristina Grigoras and Laura Oprea of Romania, who are also racing in their country's eight, were chasing hard.

But the British pulled away to take three seconds off the previous best mark seen and the Romanians paid for their effort as the US pair of Megan Kalmoe and Kerry Simmonds came through for silver ahead of Rebecca Scown and Louise Trappitt of New Zealand.

Had Murray and Bond overreached themselves by attempting to double at the coxed and coxless pairs?

Answer - no.

They earned their 19th straight win after moving up from last place to overhaul the early leaders, Britain's Matt Langridge and James Foad, and by the middle of the race they were clear.

Eric Murray(left) and Hamish Bond maintained their winning run by adding the men's pairs world title to the coxed men's pairs title they had won the previous day ©Getty Images

Coming into the line Bond and Murray enjoyed the appreciation of the crowd with Langridge and Foad following in second ahead of bronze medallists, Vincent Breet and Shaun Keeling of South Africa.

"We were a little low on energy levels but we rowed really well and managed to achieve the win," said Murray.

The failure of Britain's Olympic champion Cat Copeland and her new partner Imogen Walsh to qualify for the lightweight women's double sculls final left things wide open - and New Zealand's Julia Edward and Sophie MacKenzie took full advantage with a final sprint for gold which took them past silver medallists Canada and China, in bronze medal position.

It also brought them a world best time of 6:48.56.

"I actually couldn't believe it crossing the line," said Edward.

"This is my first world champ title, it's been a dream."

Germany's women quadruple scullers also produced a world best time, 6:06.84, in retaining their title ahead of the Chinese quartet  of Yan Jiang, Xiaoxing Shen, Yang Lyu and Xinyue Zhang, who had been fastest qualifiers. Bronze went to the United States.

Britain's men's quadruple scullers have dominated in this year's World Cup, but they had plenty on their hands in Ukraine, the European champions, and Germany's Olympic champions.

The British chased Ukraine all the way to the finish line, pushing them to a new world best time of 5:32.26.

Germany won a similarly close contest to beat China to bronze.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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