Britain claimed two gold medals for a strong comeback at the conclusion of the Munich World Rowing Championships on Sunday.

 

Their flagship crew of women's quadruple sculls, with Katherine Grainger at stroke, led from start to end for an easy win while the men's lightweight four rowers added a second gold.

 

Britain, which harvested a sole adaptive title in arms men's single sculls on Saturday, finished atop the standings with three gold medals, two silvers and six bronzes.

 

World silver medalists Amber Halliday/Marguerite Houston won women's lightweight double sculls and Australian women proved lightweight experts as they also struck gold in lightweight quadruple sculls.

 

The three titles, including men's pair won on Saturday, lifted Australia to the second place in the medal tally. They also had two silvers and two bronzes.

 

New Zealand was a close third with the same number of golds and silvers, short of bronzes though.

 

The British women's quartet turned the race into a 6:30.81 solo show, instead of a showdown against China, to stand in the center of the podium for a third time in a row.

 

Shooting out at a very aggressive pace and high rating, Britain opened up an impressive lead early in the race over China, back with the same line-up who beat Britain at the Amsterdam World Cup.

 

Germany tried to do everything to close the gap through the middle of the race but Britain finally held them off by 1.21 seconds.

 

The silver is one of the six medals hosts Germany received on Sunday. Although they failed to take a gold, the 15,000 home crowd's appreciative ovation made the whole tournament truly enjoyable and the 1972 Olympic rowing venue came alive.

 

Germans ended up with Saturday's sole win in adaptive event LTAM4X, legs, trunk and arms mixed coxed.

 

In men's quadruple sculls, Poland became the other third successive world champion of the day.

 

Sitting in bow seat of the Polish boat is Konrad Wasielewski, who has never lost a race at the international level. Joining the quad for his country in 2005, Wasielewski is part of the boat that has won every race since.

 

Poles took off at the head of the field, led midway and held their nerves in the final sprint for a 5:49.42 first finish. France's awesome sprint gave them silver and Germany took bronze.

 

Women's lightweight double sculls saw a rare dead heat. Charging to the end, four boats crossed the line practically together. Four crews thought they had won.

 

Waiting for the announcement Australia had taken gold ahead of Finland in second. Germany and Denmark were awarded a dead heat for bronze.

 

Defending champions China were shockingly left at the bottom of the field.

 

Denmark continued to dominate the lightweight men's double and Mads Rasmussen/Rasmus Quist won the nation's only title in Munich.

 

The United States were the other nation that concluded with three golds as they won two more on Sunday in men's coxed four and women's eight.

 

Powerhouse Italy claimed two wins, both in non-Olympic events - men's lightweight pairs by Andrea Caianiello/Armando Dellaquila and men's lightweight quadruple sculls.

 

Canada's only title came in the very last event of the day. Leaping out at the start at a 44 stroke rate, their men's eight crew continued where they had left off at the Lucerne World Cup in July - leading races from start to finish.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2007)