Great Britain had an exceptional day for the finals at the first Samsung World Rowing Cup for 2011 in Munich, Germany.
Arriving with the largest team, Great Britain looked to mean business as they build up to next year's London Olympic Games. Of the 14 events contested today, Great Britain had boats in every race and by the end of the day they had scored gold medals in five of them as well as four silver medals and two bronze. This remarkable result put Great Britain at the top of the World Cup table and set them up nicely for the remaining two regattas in the Samsung World Rowing Cup series.
Great Britain started off the day by winning the first three races before Germany stepped in and, much to the delight of the Munich crowd, Eric Knittel and Stephan Krueger won gold in the men's double sculls.
Germany also managed to retain the men's eight which has been in their hands since 2009. Great Britain's eight did its best to upset this winning run, but the British had to settle for silver. The British women's eight also managed silver at the hands of a smooth Dutch eight.
Inside the Dutch eight Chantel Achterberg and Neinke Kingma also scored another medal when they doubled up and raced to bronze in the women's pair.
Great Britain performed a double header in the men's and women's pair, winning both races convincingly (Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge for the men and Helen Glover and Heather Stanning for the women) and adding to their country's gold medal tally.
But not everything went the way of the British. Reigning World Champions for Britain, the lightweight men's double sculls and lightweight men's four lost their top positions. Instead Germany's Linus Lichtschlag and Lars Hartig proved to be the best in the double with Denmark back on top in the four.
Denmark's four has gained the edge with the return of four-time Olympic medallist Eskild Ebbesen making a comeback to rowing.
Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus was back on top in the women's single after finishing second to Frida Svensson of Sweden at the 2010 World Rowing Championships. Svensson, meanwhile, was at the back of the field and a little off the pace.
The Samsung World Rowing Cup will go to Hamburg, Germany for round two of the series between 17 and 19 June 2011.
For full race reports of all the week-end's racing go to www.worldrowing.com.