Rowing World Championships: Great Britain claim gold, silver and bronze

“This means so much because I now have a record. I’m so proud of that – it’s a big one for me,” said 34-year-old Rakauskaite, who also has two Paralympic gold medals in the PR3 mixed coxed four.

She shares the mark of six world titles in PR3 with fellow Briton Naomi Riches, Birgit Skarstein, of Norway, and the Netherlands’ Corne de Koning.

The British team finished seven seconds ahead of hosts China, while Germany were third.

Allen said: “Although we’re unbeaten the nerves stay the same on the start line. I think the more you win, the more you have a target on your back. So it pushes us to keep going as fast as we can and push the limits as well.”

The British men’s eight crew of Will Stewart, Archie Drummond, David Bewicke-Copley, Fergus Woolnough, Miles Beeson, Sam Nunn, Matt Aldridge, Matt Rowe and cox Will Denegri battled through in the closing stages to finish ahead of the United States by just 0.16 seconds to claim silver.

A much-changed boat showed calm heads to keep their form after the race had to be re-started because of a technical problem.

Aldridge said: “We put up a good fight – we could have rolled over. It’s a young crew with not much international experience so I’m really happy for these guys and looking forward to what happens next.”

The women’s eight of Eleanor Brinkhoff, Juliette Perry, Amelia Standing, Martha Birtles, Lauren Irwin, Eve Stewart, Heidi Long and Megan Slabbert and cox Jack Tottem also produced a strong finish to claim a first world medal in the discipline since 2011.

They were fastest in the second half of the race to pip Germany to bronze by 0.17 seconds, while Romania claimed silver behind the Netherlands.