European Championships 2018: Great Britain fail to win rowing gold medal

British rowing coach Paul Thompson says there is "a lot of work to do" after a disappointing European Championships.

They won two bronze medals on Sunday to add to two silvers, but ended without a gold for the first time since 2013.

Olympic silver medallist Vicky Thornley was among those missing in Glasgow, with the World Championships starting in Bulgaria on 9 September.

"It has been a tough weekend, there's no sugar-coating it," women's coach Thompson told BBC Sport.

"We've still got some progress we can make, but do we have a standout gold medal cert? Absolutely not."

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Sam Mottram claimed bronze for Britain with a strong finish in the lightweight men's single sculls, with Harry Leask and Jack Beaumont also finishing third in the men's double sculls, having led the race into the closing stages.

But, despite going into the men's eights as Olympic champions, Britain - without Moe Sbihi through illness - only came fifth, with Ellie Piggott and Fran Rawlins coming sixth in their final.

Men's coach Jurgen Grobler said: "We always want to be further ahead in our preparations but I think the home European competition came a year too early. We have a lot of young talented athletes and we have to help them.

"We have to work harder in our training and I have good hope that we can do better, but it wasn't the best."

Britain had topped the rowing medal table at three of the last four European Championships, but managed just one gold and three bronze medals in 2017 and finished 12th in the standings in 2018.

"I think it has been a tricky weekend, I don't think we can hide away from that," said London 2012 double sculls champion Dame Katherine Grainger.

"What the GB team do brilliantly is the training camps, time abroad, the heads down - bringing together all the lessons they've learned over the last days and weeks."

Eleven countries won rowing gold medals at this year's European Championships

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