European Championships Munich 2022: GB win four rowing gold medals

Great Britain opened their rowing account at the European Championships in Munich with four gold medals, including three in a row.

GB had already won two silver medals and a bronze when the women's four started the gold rush.

The men's four won next, then the women's quadruple sculls immediately took gold before the men's eight were victorious in the last race of the day.

More finals follow on Sunday as GB's rowers look to bounce back from Tokyo.

They failed to win an Olympic gold for the first time in 41 years, taking one silver and a bronze in Japan in 2021, but new men's head coach Paul Stannard and women's head coach Andrew Randell appear to have made their mark.

The first sign of that came when Heidi Long, Rowan McKellar, Sam Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten won a dominant women's four gold.

Shorten told BBC Sport: "There's been a lot that's gone on behind the scenes. Everyone's forgotten about everything, put their heads down and got on with it."

McKellar added: "The training has changed. The atmosphere is really positive. That's helped us improve this year and not waste the first year of the Olympiad."

Next, the new-look men's four of Sam Nunn, Will Stewart, Matt Aldridge and Freddie Davidson took gold.

On his hopes for next month's World Championships, Aldridge said the Australian quartet were "going to be coming for us".

He added: "We've got nothing to lose. It's our first year in the senior team. We're taking everything that comes and enjoying it as much as possible."

Lucy Glover, Jess Leyden, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw added another victory with a comfortable win in the women's quadruple sculls.

Newcomer Brayshaw said: "This is my first gold at a senior event and I'm absolutely buzzing. It makes me so hungry for the World Champs."

The men's eight of Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, David Bewicke-Copley, Sholto Carnegie, Charles Elwes, Thomas Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford and Harry Brightmore then powered to victory to defend the team's European title.

Earlier, Emily Ford and Esme Booth were passed late to end up with the women's pair silver before school friends Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George finished second in the men's event.

Para-rower Benjamin Pritchard won Great Britain's first medal of the day - a bronze in the PR1 men's single sculls.

Harry Leask, George Bourne, Matt Haywood and Tom Barras finished fourth in the men's quadruple sculls, while Kyra Edwards and Saskia Budgett were fifth in the women's double sculls.

• European Championships medal table