GB Rowing Team’s one-gold, two silver and a bronze medal world cup performance in Switzerland was somewhat undermined by illness.

Already missing Olympic medallists Constantine Louloudis and Nailsworh’s Peter Reed from the men’s four and eight respectively - who were recovering at home from a virus - Heather Stanning from the Olympic, World and European Champion women’s pair and Peter Lambert from the men’s quadruple scull succumbed pre-race to a different condition.

There was drama too for the men’s four who came through to take gold in a race where the Australians caught a speed-sapping crab* just a few metres from the line.

“That wasn’t exactly a text book way to win,” grinned Alex Gregory afterwards. “But it shows how strong our squad is that we can swap in someone like Callum [McBrierty] and still pull out the win”, he added.

“We could have stayed away and trained at home but we didn’t want to shy away from it. This has been invaluable experience’. said Mohamed Sbihi.

Great Britain added a spectacular silver from its women’s eight as they came crashing back towards the World and Olympic champion American crew in the final 500m to fall short by mere fractions of a second.

“That was really exciting and I hope we can get them next time”, said Karen Bennett.

“We showed how effective our rowing can be,” said Melanie Wilson.

The men’s quad went out to race with sub Jack Beaumont on board and took a superb silver behind the Australians. Beaumont was kept busy later in the day when he raced in the second-ranked men’s double to a sixth place - no doubt making his dad and 1988 Olympian Peter Beaumont proud of his doubling-up feat.

“It was a bit surprising to be up by so much in the early part of the race but we knew the Australians had a good sprint. In a last minute combination like today there is only so much you can do but we are pleased with the result and there is still a lot more we can do,” said Groom.

There was disappointment, though, for the men’s eight who finished an agonising fourth in a race won by the Dutch rather than the Olympic-champion German eight who had been pre-race favourites.

Britain backed those results with three top six finishes in the morning session, taking fifth in the lightweight men’s double scull and four and the open men’s single scull.

The lightweight men’s double raced here for the first time since Richard Chambers injured his hand and they looked fast in the early phases before showing their lack of race practice in the final quarter of the race. Chris Bartley, Mark Aldred, Jono Clegg and Peter Chambers made a strong challenge for bronze until the final 250m when they faded.

Alan Campbell showed an upward curve from his European Championships performance to take fifth place in the open men’s single scull in a race won by Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand.