World Rowing Cup II: Great Britain top medal table as Helen Glover wins silver in women's four
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Helen Glover (middle) won women's pair gold medals with Heather Stanning at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games
Great Britain finished top of the medal table at the World Rowing Cup II event in Varese, Italy.
Reigning world and double European champions Emily Craig and Imogen Grant won a thrilling lightweight women's double sculls final in a photo finish.
Double Olympic champion Helen Glover was in the women's four crew that won silver on Sunday.
GB won 11 medals in total, earning six gold, three silver and two bronze medals across the weekend.
Grant said the pair felt "a lot of pressure" going into Sunday's final after setting a world best time of six minutes 40.47 seconds in the semi-final.
GB, USA and France were neck-and-neck for most of the race before the Americans took a clear lead at 1500 metres.
In the final 500 metres, Craig and Grant reeled in US pair Michelle Sechser and Mary Reckford, taking the win on the finish line by 0.08 seconds with a time of 06:44.04.
"We had to take it to the last stroke today. We try to push each other to places we haven't been before in training, to be even better in competition," said Grant.
Glover, alongside Heidi Long, Samantha Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten finished with a time of 06:19.76, 2.21 seconds behind women's four winners USA and 2.38 seconds ahead of third-placed Australia who were 2020 Tokyo Olympic champions.
Great Britain are reigning world and double European champions in the men's eight and showed their superiority once again on Lake Varese.
They secured gold in a time of 05:23.81, with Australia finishing 2.72 seconds behind them and Germany in third.
GB's men's four also continued their impressive form, winning Sunday's final by 0.95 seconds ahead of Australia in second, with USA third.
The British four led at each 500m marker of the race, but Olympic champions Australia were always within touching distance.
Freddie Davidson, part of the British quartet that won last year's World Championship and the past two European titles, said the victory was not the cleanest but "a big confidence boost" for the team.
In the men's pair final, childhood friends Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Thomas George won gold. They led from the start, beating off early competition from European champions Switzerland, and extended their advantage as the race went on.
The British pair, who won bronze in the men's eight at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, rowed a time of 6:13.15.
Para-rowers Lauren Rowles and Gregg Stevenson won gold in the PR2 mixed double sculls with a world best time of eight minutes 1.59 seconds.
GB cruised to the gold medal in the PR3 mixed coxed four final, an event in which they are three-time Paralympic champions.
Francesca Allen, Giedre Rakauskaite, Morgan Fice-Noyes and Edward Fuller set a world best time of 6:47.29 in a race contested by only three nations.
Elsewhere on Sunday, GB survived a photo finish against Olympic champions Canada in the women's eight final to clinch silver, with Australia taking gold.
It was silver too for GB in the women's quadruple sculls final, finishing with a time of 06:09.38.
The British team rowed a strong race, finishing just 0.51 seconds behind Olympic and two-time world champions China and 2.97 seconds ahead of Germany.
GB's men's quadruple sculls crew took bronze in Sunday's final, behind Poland in first and hosts Italy second.
It was GB's second bronze after Olivia Bates finished third in Saturday's lightweight women's single sculls final.
Rowan McKellar and Esme Booth finished fifth in the women's pair final.
In the PR3 mixed double sculls final, Para-rowers Annabel Caddick and Samuel Murray earned fourth place.
There are three World Rowing Cup events each year which build towards the annual World Rowing Championships, which this year are being held in Belgrade, Serbia in September.
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