World Rowing Championships: Imogen Grant wins bronze for Great Britain

Grant made her senior British debut at the first World Cup of this year

Great Britain's Imogen Grant won bronze in the lightweight single sculls on the first day of finals at the World Rowing Championships in Bulgaria.

Grant's medal capped a memorable year which has seen her win the Women's Boat Race and World Under-23 gold, alongside training to be a doctor.

The 22-year-old only took up rowing four years ago at Cambridge University.

She said: "It was really hard. I gave it my best and I'm really happy to come away with a medal."

Grant's final was one of three for Britain in Plovdiv on Friday, with Paralympic champion Laurence Whiteley finishing fourth in the first PR2 men's single sculls.

The lightweight women's quadruple sculls matched their performance from 2017 by finishing fifth and Sam Mottram came eighth overall in the lightweight men's single sculls after taking second place in the B final.

• GB seek to put gold-free Europeans behind them

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GB crews to contest 10 medal races

Great Britain are seeking to impress after a disappointing European Championships where they failed to win a gold medal.

Having already qualified four crews for the weekend's medal races, six more British boats came through Friday's semi-finals to book places in finals.

Angus Groom and Jack Beaumont won their men's doubles sculls semi-final ahead of reigning champions New Zealand.

Harry Leask finished second in his single sculls semi-final, while Charlotte Hodgkins Byrne and Anna Thornton reached the women's doubles sculls final and Para-rower Andy Houghton progressed to the PR1 men's single sculls final.

Both the men's and women's eights came through their repechage races to progress to their respective finals.

The men led from start to finish to cross the line nearly half a length up on European champions Romania and the women just edged out New Zealand for the fourth and final qualification spot.