Surprises and Close Races Mark First Day Finals

Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell have won double gold at the FISA World Rowing Championships but only after two narrow escapes.

Olympic single sculls champions Ekaterina Karsten was not so lucky in her bid for two World Championship wins, losing her single sculls title but finishing with two bronze medals.

Rowers in Group A finals had saved their best performance till last. Only five of the races had splits of more than a second between gold and silver and there were no clear-water wins.

Pinsent and Cracknell almost missed their goal of gold in both their men's coxed and coxless pairs races.

In the coxed pairs they were surprised by a late sprint from Italy's Lorenzo Carboncini and Mattia Trombetta and cox Andrea Monizza.

With 100 metres to go, the Italians ate up the Pinsent and Cracknell's lead of a length and looked to catch them just before the line. An extra push saved the British duo and cox Neil Chugani and they took gold.

Less than two hours later it was a case of deja vu.

Pinsent and Cracknell had started off the pace but with 300 metres to go had taken the lead from Yugoslavia's Djordie Visacki and Nikola Stojic and looked safe.

But the Yugoslavians had not had their last say. As Cracknell and Pinsent sat in the lead in the middle of the course, Visacki and Stojic sped up the side in lane one. The two crews crossed the line together.

Exhausted, Pinsent and Cracknell appeared unsure whether they had taken the race but a photofinish showed they had won by 0.02 seconds, by the surge of a stroke.

Ekaterina Karsten had hoped for double gold but it was not to be.

The Olympic and two-time world champion lost her single sculls crown to long-time time runner-up Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany.

Rutschow-Stomporowski took the lead seven hundred metres in and never looked back. Karsten battled Joulia Levina of Russia for second but conceded by a length.

Rutschow-Stomporowski was delighted to beat the woman she has come second best to to for the last four years.

"It is a dream come true," she said. "This is my favourite boat class and this victory means a lot to me."

Just over 50 minutes after Karsten finished in the women's single she was back in the blocks for the women's double with Volha Berazniova

Up against Germany's world champions Katrin Boron and Kerstin Kowalski the task of gold was always going to be more difficult and Karsten had to settle for bronze again.

But the Germans did not have the luxury of the open water wins they achieved all season.

They had to fight to get into the lead in the first half of the race and were pushed to the line by New Zealand's Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell who finished 1.53 seconds behind.

Olaf Tufte of Norway is the new men's single sculls champion.

He rowed through his 2000 double sculls adversary Iztok Cop in a blanket finish with Vaclav Chalupa of the Czech Republic.

His win earned him more than a gold medal. After the ceremony, Cop and Chalupa swung him, cox style, into the Rotsee, the long-time rivals obviously firm friends.

In a surprise result, Olympic silver medallist Xeno Mueller finished off the pace in fourth. The Swiss was gracious in defeat, shrugging his shoulders and waving as he rowed past the hundreds of Swiss fans who had come to cheer him on in the grandstand.

There were double celebrations for Ireland in the lightweight singles as they took gold in both the men's and women's events.

Sinead Jennings left it until the last minute to claim her win, biding her time behind eventual silver medallist Mirjam Ter Beek of the Netherlands.

But Lynch took control of the race early. He had the lead 700 metres into the race and won in the most decisive victory of the day – by 2.33 seconds.

Both of last year's world champions, Pia Vogel of Switzerland and Michal Vabrousek of the Czech Republic took bronze.

Great Britain's new men's coxless four took on the mantle of the Redgrave coxless four, successfully defending the title the British have held for the past four years.

They had swapped first and second with Germany over the 2000 metres, only a fast final sprint ensuring their three-quarters of a length victory.

Australia took the women's coxless four after leading for the entire course. New Zealand came back at them in the final sprint but it was too late and they took silver.

The Netherlands took bronze, with two-seat Carin Ter Beek winning her family's second medal of the day after sister Mirjam took silver in the lightweight women's single.

France's Olympic champion lightweight men's coxless four fulfilled their dreams of winning gold in the lightweight men's eight.

In a blanket finish, the French crossed the line little more than a canvas over Denmark. USA pulled off the fastest final sprint to pip Italy for the bronze, the first four boats separated by less than two seconds.

And there was more to-the-wire action in the men's double. That went to this season's consistent performers Akos Haller and Tibor Peto by a bowball over Adrien Hardy and Sebastien Vielledent of France.

And just a few inches back were Italian men's quad Olympic champions Rossano Galtarossa and Alessio Sartori. They took bronze less than two months after deciding to row together in the double.

Romania retained the women's coxless pair title by a length after seeing off a challenge from Belarus's world junior champion Yuliya Bickyk and partner Olga Tratsevskaia. Canada's Jacqueline Cook and Karen Clark took bronze.

More details on today's races are available in the race by race report. Finals action continue tomorrow with the A finals for Group B beginning at 13:30 CET.