Rowing World Cup: Great Britain win three golds in Lucerne

Great Britain won three gold medals on finals day at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, their last competition before the Team GB Olympic squad is announced.

The women's pair, women's lightweight double and men's four all won, with GB also taking silver in the men's eight and bronze in the lightweight four.

However, Olympic lightweight double scull champions Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase could only finish sixth.

The Olympic squad is named on 6 June, ahead of the final World Cup in Munich.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, the women's pair world silver medallists in 2011, led throughout as they took gold in the opening final of the day ahead of the USA and world champions New Zealand.

"It was a really good race for us," said Stanning. "Helen made some fantastic calls and that meant all I had to do was focus on what I was doing."

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins then reinforced their credentials as Britain's best bets for gold in London as they beat Poland by a length in the double scull.

The German pair had been expected to push Grainger and Watkins close but could only finish third, and they might now move to the four for the Olympics.

There were worrying signs, however, for Hunter and Purchase as they finished way off the pace in the lightweight double final, having only sneaked through their semi-final in third place on Saturday.

The new French combination took gold ahead of New Zealand and Denmark.

"It is good that this has happened here and now because we can kind of go back to the drawing board and make sure we are looking after ourselves a bit more, and we have enough time to get things right," said Hunter.

Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Tom James and Alex Gregory then provided the most dramatic moment of the morning as they took on the Australian four for the first time this year.

The Australians looked in control at the 1500m mark before the power of the British crew told in the closing stages, and they moved through their rivals to back up their gold from the opening round in Belgrade.

"We had a feeling before the race that they would try to do something special," said Reed. "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 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."

There was a bronze for Paul Mattick, Rob Williams, Richard Chambers and Chris Bartley in the men's lightweight four behind China and South Africa.

The new combination of George Nash and Will Satch finished fifth in the men's pair, with the peerless New Zealand duo of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond confirming that they are overwhelming favourites for gold in London by dominating on their season's debut.

Alan Campbell was challenging for the lead until the middle section of the men's single scull final but was left trailing by Czech Ondrej Synek and New Zealand's Mahe Dysdale, the Briton finishing in fourth.

"I'm hugely disappointed to be truthful," said the Northern Irishman. "I thought I was better than that. I didn't have the legs in the second half. Physcially I wasn't able to push on like I did in Belgrade and I'm really not sure why.

"Yesterday I felt good and confident and going forward. Today it just felt busy in the race, there was a lot going and it wasn't as comfortable"

The British men's eight gave an encouraging display as they took silver behind Germany - unbeaten since 2009 - but ahead of Canada, who set a world record in the heats.

"It was good to be that close to the Germans and very exciting but we all know we still have more to find," said greg Searle. "This crew is moving on every time we race."