New Zealand's Fiona Bourke and Zoe Stevenson beat Lithuania's world champions and Poland's European champions in a double sculls final in which all three medallists finished within a second of each other ©Getty Images

Other victories for New Zealand came through Julia Edward in the lightweight women's single sculls, Emma Twigg in the women's single sculls, the lightweight men's four and, naturally, the men's pair, where Eric Murray and Hamish Bond maintained an unbeaten run that goes back more than five years.

Britain's newly formed four of Alex Gregory, Moe Sbihi, George Nash and Andy Triggs Hodge, already European champions, produced another commanding victory to hold off the challenge of the Dutch World champions.

The Netherlands have struggled with injury and crew changes this season but put together a late effort to diminish the British lead and take silver ahead of Canada.

Sbihi later substituted for an injured Matt Gotrel in the eight, where Britain took bronze in another massively competitive race in which Germany, the London 2012 champions, edged the result from a powerful Russian crew.

Britain's newly constituted men's four, already European champions, maintained their unbeaten record at the Lucerne World Cup ©Getty Images

Germany's other victories were provided in the women's quadruple sculls and the men's coxed pair, while gold went to the host nation in the lightweight men's pair and single scull.

Britain's Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, Olympic champions in the women's pair, secured a second World Cup victory after returning to competitive action together this year following Stanning's tour of duty in Afghanistan as an Army captain, and a further British gold came from the lightweight women's double scullers Kat Copeland, the London 2012 champion, and Imogen Walsh.

New Zealand's newly formed lightweight men's four took silver behind Denmark in last year's World Championships, but they have pushed on from there and here they took gold after catching and passing their Danish rivals in the second half of the race.

Behind them, Britain won an equally close contest with France for the bronze.

Denmark earned golden recompense in the lightweight men's quadruple sculls, however, as Christian Nielsen, Jannik Nilton, Emil Espensen and Jens Nielsen held off a strong German crew.

Edward came out of the women's lightweight double when it was determined that her partner would not be fit enough for the international season, and she maintained her unbeaten record in Lucerne after breaking clear in the first 500m.

Aikaterini Nikolaidou of Greece led the challengers, finishing ahead of Marie-Anne Frenken of The Netherlands.

Home cheers were raised by Simon Niepmann and Lucas Tramer, world and European champions in the lightweight men's pair having emerged from the Olympic lightweight four.

The Swiss pairing used the crowd support to cross the line ahead of Jiri Kopac and Miroslav Vrastil of the Czech Republic.

France dominated the women's four, with gold going to their top crew and silver to their second string, and a second French gold arrived in the lightweight men's double sculls.

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