Germany's day at the World Rowing Junior Championships

The most coveted success for the Germans came in the men's eight. The closest finish of the day saw Germany take gold in the very last stroke of the race. Their margin over Italy, in second, was just 0.01 of a second. Serbia followed in third, less than a quarter of a second back.

Germany's other gold medals came in the men's pair, the men's double sculls and the men's quadruple sculls. Malte Grossmann and Michael Trebbow of Germany became World Champions in the men's double and did it by getting out to a fast start and holding off their competition. Greece came through at the end to take silver and Slovenia won the bronze.

The men's double was not so clear cut for Germany. Poland had the early lead and it took until the middle of the race for Philipp Syring and Tim Ole Naske of Germany to get out in front. Once in front Syring and Naske held their lead to the end with Romania in second and Poland earning third.

Germany's fourth gold was in the men's quadruple sculls with Germany leading by a very small margin for the majority of the race. New Zealand won their sole medal at this regatta by picking up the silver and China, in third, also took home their only medal.

Jessica Leyden made history for Great Britain by being the first-ever British gold medallist in the women's single sculls at junior level. Leyden's finishing sprint proved to be too much for her competition with Belarus's Tatsiana Klimovich taking silver and France's Elodie Ravera-Scaramozzino winning bronze.

Romania, along with Germany, also had a successful day. The Romanian's picked up gold medals in the women's double sculls and the women's eight as well as silver in the men's double sculls.

Poland's Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk won the men's single sculls by getting out fast at the start and holding off all competition until the end. The main competition came from Serbia's Andrija Sljukic who took silver and Azerbaijan's Boris Yotov who won bronze.

This year's World Rowing Junior Championships also served as the main qualification regatta for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. Spots for nations were earned, in varying numbers through all of the finals races. Nations will then get to choose which athletes to send to Nanjing.

The next event on the World Rowing calendar is the World Rowing Coastal Championships in Helsingborg, Sweden next weekend followed by the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, Korea from 25 August to 1 September 2013.