Rowing: Long-shot partnership win coxless pairs gold for Britain

The British team won eight medals in Olympic events at the World Cup here yesterday, including four golds.

The unlikely combination of Colin Smith and Matt Langridge put Britain back on the gold standard in coxless pairs - an event once owned by GB for years with names such as Redgrave, Pinsent and Cracknell.

Smith is wiry in the world of heavyweight rowing, weighing 12.5 stone and stretching to make six feet, and is dwarfed by the solid mass of his stroke man and by all who stood on the medal podium. The Laurel and Hardy of the team, their partnership was a long shot by chief coach Jurgen Grobler that paid off in dramatic fashion yesterday.

Having won both their World Cup heat and semi-final, their plan to lead a world-class final went awry when they were last at halfway. But they moved through the field and were second after 1500 metres. A surge then took them past Croatia's Skelin brothers, Olympic silver medallists, to win by a length. Smith had run out of things to say when they took the lead, and could only yell repeatedly at Langridge's back, "World Cup! World Cup!"

Matt Wells and Steve Rowbotham followed that with their best-ever performance in the double sculls, overhauling the French world champions with 500 metres to go. Golds also went to the women's quad and the men's coxless four, bringing the latter's unbeaten record to 27 races. There were silvers for the sculler Alan Campbell, the women's eight and the new lightweight double scullers Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter. The lightweight four won bronze after a neck-and-neck battle with China and the Netherlands.

Britain lead the World Cup after one round with 62 points to Germany's 47.