The Croatian duo took gold in the men’s pair as they finished just shy of two seconds ahead of eventual silver medallists Ciprian Tudosa and Marius-Vasile Cozmuic of Romania by clocking a time of 6min 14.960sec in Plovdiv.

The Romanians pushed French brothers Valentin and Theophile Onfroy into bronze medal position.

Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens of Canada took gold in the women’s pair in 6:50.670, ahead of New Zealand’s Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler.

Spanish rowers Anna Boada Peir and Aina Cid claimed the bronze medal.

In the lightweight women’s double sculls, Romania's Ionela-Livia Cozmuic and Gianina-Elena Beleaga clinched the world title in 6:50.710.

Their triumph saw them retain their crown, beating the United States and the Netherlands to top the podium.

In the men’s lightweight double sculls, the O'Donovans - the Olympic silver medallists who sparked worldwide attention with their post-race interview in Rio de Janeiro - claimed gold for Ireland in 6:06.810.

The Irish brothers only just made it to the final after a poor semi final performance and started in lane six but recovered to beat the Italian pair of Pietro Ruta and Stefano Oppo, while Belgium’s Tim Brys and Niels van Zandweghe did enough for bronze.

The US won the women’s four as Australia and Russia took home silver and bronze.

Madeleine Wanamaker, Erin Boxberger, Molly Bruggeman and Erin Reelick led from the start to claim gold in 6:25.570 as Lucy Stephan, Katrina Werry, Sarah Hawe and Molly Goodman had to settle for silver.

The Russian quartet of Ekaterina Sevostianova, Anastasia Tikhanova, Ekaterina Potapova and Elena Oriabinskaia were the bronze medallists.

In the men’s event, Australia picked up gold as Joshua Hicks, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alexander Hill narrowly edged the Italian team with a time of 5:44.70.

Finishing in 5:44.990, Matteo Castaldo, Bruno Rosetti, Matteo Lodo and Marco di Costanzo had to settle for silver.

Britain, whose crew included Thomas Ford, Jacob Dawson, Adam Neill and James Johnston, earned bronze.

Poland took gold in the women’s quadruple sculls ahead of Germany and the Netherlands.

Agnieszka Kobus-Zawojska, Marta Wieliczko, Maria Springwald and Katarzyna Zillmann claimed gold for Poland in 6:06.8960 secs, more than two seconds ahead of Germany.

Marie-Catherine Arnold, Carlotta Nwajide, Franziska Kampmann and Frieda Haemmerling took the silver, while the Dutch crew of Sophie Souwer, Nicole Beukers, Olivia van Rooijen and Karolien Florijn clinched bronze.

Italy’s Filippo Mondelli, Andrea Panizza, Luca Rambaldi and Giacomo Gentili won gold in the men’s event in 5:35.310secs as Australia and Ukraine took the other medals.

The US won gold in the Para PR3 women’s pair event as Danielle Hansen and Jaclyn Smith took the title in 7:39.300.

Dutch pair Annika van der Meer and Corne de Koning won the first medal of the day, topping the podium in the Para mixed double sculls final in a championship record time of 8:07.920, beat the Polish and Ukrainian crews into silver and bronze respectively.

The British team won the Para mixed coxed four final, ahead of the American and French teams, in 7:00.360.