Rowing: Women's Quad Takes Gold

The British women's quad emulated the men's four, who had won so confidently here at the world championships a day earlier, with a courageous final sprint. Rebecca Romero, Sarah Winkless, Frances Houghton and the stroke Katherine Grainger held off a ferocious assault from Germany's Olympic champions yesterday to take the gold medal.

Houghton had said in advance that she was looking forward to "taking out" Germany's star performer Katrin Boron, winner of 12 Olympic and world titles, and she did so emphatically. "It felt like everyone in the boat was doing their job well," said Houghton.

"We felt a big change of speed from Germany before 1,000 metres, which we were expecting, and we held them," said Grainger, twice an Olympic silver medallist and now twice a world champion. "Then Rebecca called out 'they've caught a crab', so we struck."

In fact it caused only a momentary break to the German rhythm but the British scullers were flying and finished 0.4sec ahead for a first victory in this event over the nation which has lost the title only twice since its inception in 1984.

The men's four, Andy Hodge, Alex Partridge, Peter Reed and Steve Williams, lived up to their promise - they are unbeaten all season - by leading the field from start to finish. The Dutch, who had looked a threat during the heats, could not match the power and fluidity of the British crew.

It was a promising weekend all round for the British team on the Nagara river. The young men's and women's eights were close-up fourth and fifth respectively and the men's quad scullers won their B final handsomely after a 1-length semi-final defeat by the eventual champions Poland.

The lightweights also showed up well with all their Olympic-class crews finishing first or second in the B finals, a big step up from the poor results of recent years.