19 June: Leander athletes won three gold medals on finals day at Munich as members of the men’s four and the women’s quad, lead boats in the GB fleet, fulfilled pre-race expectations by dominating their races.

The British men’s four, with Leander’s Steve Williams and Alex Partridge in the bow and 3 seats, excelled ahead of the opposition to take their second successive gold medal in this year’s World Cup series. Their trademark start left the other five crews standing, and they had already opened up a clear water advantage before the 500m mark. Italy hung on grimly but could do no more than stay ahead of the trailing pack as the Brits established a five second lead at halfway. Rating 37 strokes a minute with 250m to go they were able to drop the rate to 35 across the line, which they cleared by 1 ½ lengths ahead of Italy, with Ireland taking the bronze a further two lengths astern.

“We weren’t worried about anyone else – we have to focus on our own race” said a confident Partridge afterwards. “We have to be excellent – whoever is out there, we’ve got to be able to beat them, and we’re trying to make what we do bullet-proof . It’s going to take a lot out of anyone who wants to try and keep up” he said

In the straight final of the women’s quads Leander’s Rebecca Romero, in the bow seat of the British crew, could look back at the rest of the field as they cruised to a clear water victory ahead of the Ukraine and the USA. The crew had evidently learned much from their win at Eton three weeks ago and this time they established an early lead to which none of the other contenders had a response.

“After the first 250m I looked across and knew we had our bows in front, and we made sure we were half a length up after 500m” said Rebecca. “Every bit of lead we gained we went out for more. We did everything we set out to do and enjoyed the experience” she said.

Not even an Olympic silver medal in last year’s quad could ease the pressure for Debbie Flood as she lined up alongside the world-class field in the women’s single final. Ekaterina Karsten, silver medallist in Athens,was favoured to win, but Mirka Knapkova, the Czech who finished two places behind her in the Olympic final, was determined to reverse the result. And then there were the Evers-Swindell sisters from New Zealand, world and Olympic champions in the double scull and now having their first season in separate singles, each having made the final.

It was Caroline Evers-Swindell who led off the start but Karsten had soon caught up and had a clear lead at halfway which she never let go, crossing the line more than four seconds clear of Knapkova, with the New Zealanders third and fourth, and Debbie Flood in sixth, just behind Sophie Balmary of France.

However Debbie’s result has done much more than inject confidence ahead of next week’s Royal Regatta, in which none of the other Munich finalists will be taking part. It has also raised the possibility that she might have done enough to earn her place back in the quad – just when and how that might happen remain the unanswered questions.

Mark Hunter and James Lindsay-Fynn had done well to make the final of the lightweight doubles in which the opposition was bound to be so much more challenging than at Eton, and so it proved. At the 500m signal the Leander captain and his sculling partner were two seconds off the lead in sixth place but pushed hard to make up lost ground and reached the halfway mark in fourth. It was to no avail, and the finishing spurt which had stood them in good stead for yesterday’s semi failed to materialise. The second Italian double took the gold ahead of Germany, the first Italian crew took the bronze, and Great Britain finished in sixth place.

Matt Langridge, the Leander stroke of the GB men’s quad just missed out on a medal, despite a late burst for the line. The Slovenians made all the running, with the Poles and the Czechs vying for silver and bronze, and the Brits trailing the field in fifth place with less than 500m to go. As Langridge raised the rate to 40 strokes a minute they came back strongly, slipping the Australians for fourth place, but just failing to catch the Czechs for third.

Dave Currie and the GB lightweight men’s four finished in fifth place in their final, in which France led from start to finish and the Germans just fought off the Irish on the final stroke to take the silver medal.

Race reports by Leander Press Officer Robert Treharne Jones

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18 June: In the semifinals of the women’s singles Leander vice-captain Debbie Flood sculled a perfectly controlled race to qualify for tomorrow’s A final – one of six in which Leander athletes will feature.

In flat calm conditions, contrasting sharply with the choppy waters of the Eton final three weeks ago, she lined up alongside strong opposition including the former Olympic champion and silver medallist in Athens, Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, as well as Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, who finished fourth in last year’s Olympic final.

True to form it was Karsten and Knapkova who made the early running, but Debbie held on to third place despite being pressed hard by Yulya Levina of Russia, a former world finalist in the single scull. Within the last 300 metres Debbie raised her rate from 34 to 37 strokes a minute, maintaining her rhythm, and although Levina kept up the pressure Debbie crossed the line almost a length clear to claim her place in tomorrow’s final.

Two hours later it was the turn of captain Mark Hunter to impress when he and James Lindsay-Fynn came from behind in their semi of the lightweight doubles to take a final place behind Germany and France.

“With 250m to go we knew we had to get the strokes in” said Hunter afterwards. He raised the rate to 43 to pull them past the Czech Vetesnik brothers, who were still ahead with 100m to go. Hunter and Lindsay-Fynn were just 0.29 sec ahead at the line.

“It was more important to get a final place here than at Eton – on paper we had the harder semi, but at least it gives us confidence for Henley now we know we’ve got a sprint finish!” said Hunter.

The only surprise of the men’s fours semifinals was when the Germans damaged their  boat after striking an obstacle during practice starts, and both races were put back to the end of the day. In expected fashion the GB four, with Leander’s Steve Williams and Alex Partridge on board, then dominated the race and had opened up a clear water advantage after 750m. They maintained that lead all the way to the finish, to qualify for the final ahead of Ireland and Germany.

Matt Langridge stroked the GB men’s quad to another A final place when they came second in their repechage. The five-boat field was closely matched until the British men and the Ukrainians, drawn in the outside lanes after their slow qualifying times, decided to break free and push the Germany back into third.

The last A final place of the day came for Leander’s Dave Currie in the lightweight men’s four, which finished more than two seconds behind Germany and forced both the Italian crews into the B final.

Matt Beechey and Nick Wakefield line up alongside an all-German field in their repechage of the lightweight men’s pairs – the other three crews consisted entirely of German pairs who were hoping to catch their selectors eye. With just two crews to qualify only one thing was sure - that at least one German boat would go through. Beechey and Wakefield were lying second after 500m but then slipped back into third at halfway, and the positions were unchanged at 1500m, by which time they had left themselves too much to do. Despite raising their rate to 43 strokes a minute and rowing the fastest final split of the field they went down by half a length and now contest tomorrow’s B final.

In the ‘Saturday final’ to determine lane order for tomorrow’s women's quadruple scull final the GB quad, with Leander's Rebecca Romero in the bow seat, took a four second win ahead of the Ukraine, and will draw the favoured centre lane in their bid for their second successive World Cup gold.

17 June: Four of the Leander athletes at the World Cup regatta in Munich have moved through to the semifinals tomorrow, including club captain Mark Hunter in the lightweight double scull and vice-captain Debbie Flood in the women's single.

Mark Hunter, scullling with his partner James Lindsay-Fynn of London RC, went hard off the start and moved quickly into second place behind the young Slovenians Igor Ronchi and Mitja Trkov, who failed to maintain the pace. Through the middle 1000m it was Hunter and Lindsay-Fynn who held the lead before the experienced Italians Elia Luini and Bruno Mascarenhas moved through with less than 500m to go. Italy qualified ahead of Great Britain while the Hong Kong China double scull went through in third place.

Debbie Flood had a tough heat this morning when she lined up against former Olympic champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus and Peggy Waleska of Germany, a former world champion in the quad scull and silver medallist in the double last year in Athens. With just two to qualify direct for the semifinal Debbie was lying second to Karsten with 500m to go until a big push by Waleska took the German through into second place, with Debbie third. In the repechages later in the day Debbie made no doubt about the result with a clear win ahead of Majda Jerman of Slovenia.

There was never any doubt about the emphatic heat win by the GB men's four, with Leander's Steve Williams and Alex Partridge on board. Four seconds clear of the field at 500m they had extended this to seven seconds at the halfway mark and eight seconds at 1500m. With this sort of lead they could afford to ease up the pressure in the final stages, but still managed to maintain their margin as they crossed the line to qualify ahead of Slovenia and the third German boat.

"We’re happy that was a solid start" said Williams afterwards. "There were key areas to our race that we are looking to improve on this weekend and we think we are doing pretty well - we know we’ve got a good top speed" he said.

The rest of the Leander squad in Munich face further repechages tomorrow if they are to progress through the regatta. The men's quad scull, with Matt Langridge at stroke, finished fifth in their heat, while Matt Beechey and Nick Wakefield finished fourth in their heat of the lightweight pairs, and Dave Currie finished third in the GB lightweight men's four.

The women's quadruple scull, with Leander's Rebecca Romero in in the bow seat, have a straight final in their event on Sunday.

14 June: The full list of Leander athletes selected to represent Great Britain at the World Cup regatta this weekend is:

Women’s single scull

Debbie Flood

Women’s quadruple scull

Rebecca Romero

Men’s four

Steve Williams

Alex Partridge

Men’s quadruple scull

Matt Langridge

Lightweight men’s pair

Matt Beechey

Lightweight men’s four

Dave Currie

Lightweight men’s double  scull

Mark Hunter

ENDS