British rowers won four gold medals in Belgrade today ©FISA / Igor Meijer

Rowers from Great Britain and Switzerland enjoyed an emphatic final day at the opening World Rowing Cup stage of the season in Belgrade, winning six gold medals between them.

Britain managed to claim four golds including one by Peter Chambers and Will Fletcher in the men's double sculls on Sava Lake.

The pairing posted the fastest qualifying time from yesterday's semi-finals and faced fierce competition from Rio 2016 silver medallists Paul and Gary O'Donovan of Ireland in today's medal race. 

After 500 metres, only just over a second separated the entire field before Chambers and Fletcher extended their lead at the halfway mark.

The O'Donovan brothers are known to have a ferocious sprint but Chambers and Fletcher managed to gain another second with their Czech, Irish and Polish rivals all following closely behind. 

The British pairing managed to hold off all of the late challenges and crossed the line first.

Juri Simanek and Miroslav Vrastil of the Czech Republic took silver while Poland's Jerzy Kowalski and Milosz Jankowski completed the top three as the O'Donovans missed out on a medal.

Further success followed for Britain as Callum McBrierty, Matthew Tarrant, Mohamed Sbihi and William Satch triumphed in the men's four.

Sbihi was part of the Rio 2016 gold medal winning team while Satch won gold in the Brazilian city in the men's eight.

The British quartet narrowly clinched the title in a final sprint and beat The Netherlands and Spain, who took silver and bronze respectively.

Karen Bennett and Holly Norton won Britain's third gold in the women's pair while Jacob Dawson and Matthew Rossiter combined to secure the the men's pair crown.

Jeannine Gmelin won the women's single sculls title ©Getty Images
Jeannine Gmelin won the women's single sculls title ©Getty Images

The British team then went on to secure a further three silvers and four bronzes.

The one disappointing note was that the men's eight, in which the British are the reigning Olympic champions, suffered a shock defeat as they were beaten by 0.68 seconds by a Netherlands crew.

Switzerland's Nico Stahlberg won his country's first gold of the day in the men's single sculls.

He produced an outstanding performance to beat Rio 2016 silver medallist Damir Martin of Croatia, who finished with the silver medal.

The bronze went to Marko Marjanovic of Serbia on home water.

Switzerland was also successful in the women's single sculls with Jeannine Gmelin dominating the race in front of second place and Rio 2016 silver medallist Victoria Thornley of Britain.

Last year's European champion Magdalena Lobnig of Austria finished in third.

Lithuania showed their prowess in men's sculling by winning gold in both the men's quadruple sculls and the men's double sculls.

These two golds were Lithuania's sole medals of the regatta, and put them in fifth place on the medals table.

The overall winner of the event was Britain with 60 points.

The Netherlands took second on 47 while Poland completed the top three with a total of 36.

World Cup action will now move to Poznan in Poland between June 16 and 18.