The 34-year-old Scot is Britain's most successful female rower having previously won world titles in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 as well as a trio of Olympic silver medals.

Grainger and Watkins were the hot favourites going into the race in Lake Karapiro after winning all three World Cups earlier this season and they did not disappoint, taking control at the head of the field and pulling away to win by more than five seconds ahead of Australia and Poland.

The double's victory made it five gold medals for Britain at the regatta, with four coming in Olympic classes along with Paralympic champion Tom Aggar's victory in the adaptive men's single sculls.

It looked set to be another gold medal for Britain in the men's double sculls as Matt Wells and Marcus Bateman stormed ahead of the field.

The duo maintained an advantage of at least half a length for most of the race but, heading into the final 200 metres, the New Zealand crew of Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan began to close in.



The British had beaten their rivals at World Cup races in Munich and Lucerne but this time it was the home double who had the momentum and they swept past Wells and Bateman to win New Zealand's third gold medal.

The women's eight always looked to have a tough task, with the United States and Canada expected to contest gold and silver.

And that was exactly how it played out as defending champions United States eased away to triumph.

The real battle was being played out for bronze, with Britain desperately trying to get on terms with Romania.

In the end they were just found wanting, but did hang on to take fourth spot by one hundredth of a second from the Dutch.

The final race of the World Championships was the blue riband men's eight, where Britain were expected to pick up a medal of some colour.

The British crew featured 38-year-old Greg Searle, back competing after a decade in retirement, but he just failed to add a second world title 17 years after his first as Germany held on to win a pulsating race by less than a second, with Australia in third.


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