Home gold for Azou and Delayre at World Rowing Championships

Stany Delayre (left) and jeremie Azou earned a second gold for host nation France at the World Rowing Championships ©Getty Images

The home crowd at Lake Aiguebelette came alive today as France’s Jeremie Azou and Stany Delayre earned the second gold of this year’s World Rowing Championships for the host nation.

The French pair, silver medallists in the lightweight men’s double sculls at last year’s World Championships, gave it their all on Lake Aiguebelette, and so exhausted was Azou that he could barely make it to the medal ceremony.

All four top finishers at last year’s Worlds were in the race, and at the halfway point the British pairing of William Fletcher and Richard Chambers - who had raced away at the start at an extraordinary rate of 52 strokes per minute - held a marginal lead of 0.07sec over the French, with Norway and defending champions South Africa less than a second behind.

Azou and Delayre, unbeaten this season, pushed on to gain a lead they never lost, with the British taking silver ahead of Norway’s 2013 world champion pair of Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli, with the South Africans missing the podium.

“We tried to save as much energy as possible in the first half and then give everything in the second half,” said Delayre.

“It’s nothing but an intense joy to finally be world champion.”

Britain’s London 2012 champions Helen Glover and Heather Stanning retained their world title in the women’s pairs - and warned their rivals that the best is yet to come as they defend their Olympic title in Rio next year.

Britain's Helen Glover (left) and Heather Stanning defended their world title in the women's pair on Lake Aiguebelette - and warned they will be even better for next year's defence of their Olympic title ©Getty Images

The British pair, who teamed up again last year after Stanning had spent a year in Afghanistan as part of her Army tour of duty, led from start to finish, crossing the line just a couple of seconds outside their own world best time .

“We were exactly where we want to be,” said Stanning.

“We will peak only next year.”

Silver went to New Zealanders Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler, both of whom will row for the Kiwi eight tomorrow, with Felice Mueller and Eleanor Logan of the United States taking bronze.

Unbeaten for longer than three years now, New Zealand’s men’s pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond defended their men’s pairs title in peerless style,

After taking the lead approaching the halfway mark, they soon earned a five-second advantage over the rest of the field, showboating home at a stroke rate of 40 to extend their unbeaten run to 58 races.

Behind them, Britain’s James Foad and Matt Langridge took silver ahead of Serbia’s Milos Vasic and Nenad Bedik.

“6:15 is a pretty good time for the conditions,” said Bond.

“We are pleased with that and especially to do it on race day.

“We made some good improvements in our rhythm these last weeks.”

The lightweight women’s double sculls final saw New Zealand’s Sophie Mackenzie and Julia Edward defended their title after taking the lead in the third 500m and holding on ahead of Britain’s London 2012 champion Kat Copeland and the new partner with whom she won this year’s European title, Charlotte Taylor.

Sophie Mackenzie and Julia Edward successfully defended their lightweight double sculls title ©Getty Images

Bronze went to South Africa.

“Today was about knowing how well we could do, it was a test for the Olympics next year,” said Taylor.

“We are so happy, it is game on.”

Italy won the men’s four title after holding off the challenge of an Australian crew whose preparations had been undermined by the training bike accident in July that put No2 seat Alex Lloyd out of the running with a broken collarbone.

Britain stormed down the outside to claim bronze.

A sustained drive for the line from the outside lane enabled the United States to claim gold in the women’s quadruple sculls ahead of the clear halfway leaders and defending champions Germany, who also lost their two-year unbeaten run.

United States, Germany, bronze medallists the Netherlands, Poland and Australia all qualified for Rio 2016, with only sixth-placed New Zealand missing out.

Germany’s London 2012 champions took gold in the men’s quadruple sculls ahead of Australia and Estonia.