Emery and Chambers overhauled a New Zealand pair who were fast out of the blocks, but they coul not maintain their pace and eventually missed out on a podium place.

The British pair were just one second shy of a new world best time, and the world under-23 champions were joined on the podium by Italy's Luca De Maria and Armando Dell'Aquila in second and Germany's Bastian Seibt and Lars Wichert in third.

"New Zealand took off quickly," said Emery.

"We stayed in the middle of the field for the first kilometre and then moved strongly.

"At 600 metres gone I looked around for New Zealand and saw that they were about three-quarters of a length up on us and I knew we had to keep working and working and that they would pay for it at the end."

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning agonisingly missed out on gold in the women's pair in a reversal of the men's fortunes as they led their rivals from New Zealand before missing out at the end.

With the line in sight they had held a lead and as they crossed the finish neither crew knew who had won, but to the agony of Glover and Stanning, they missed out by eight hundreths of a second on the win with the New Zealanders Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown celebrating. 

"I knew the Kiwis would come back on us but I didn't know how close it was at the end", said Stanning.

"Next year is obviously what matters," added Glover.

"This may be the result that makes our career because we will be so fuelled up to get up there and be punching at the top of the podium next year."


In the men's eight, the British team came second to their German counterparts in choppy conditions, taking the silver for a second year in a row.

They overtook the Australians and despite putting up a spirited effort could not find a way past a German team clearly thriving in spite of the tricky conditions.

They can at least take consolation from missing out on gold with the knowledge that they will be competing at London 2012.

The 1992 Olympic gold medallist Greg Searle, part of the eight, said: "It's a bitter pill to swallow coming second but in a way we'll be very motivated now for 11 months and a day until the Olympics."

Five British crews go into tomorrow's ompetition in contention for their respective finals, with Paralympic champion Tom Aggar winning the semi-final of the arms only single scull.

The lightweight mens' four and lightweight women's single will also be favourites for success after winning their semis, and the men's double squad came home in second, with the lightweight men's single in third.

The British women's eight, who qualified for their final yesterday, will also be in action tomorrow, whilst the women's quad will be celebrating the fact that they have secured a place at the Olympic Games with a win in the B-final.

Also in action tomorrow will be Pete Reed and Andy Triggs in the men's pair, world champion Katherine Grainger in the double scull and Marcus Bateman and Matt Wells in the men's double scull.

Elsewhere, Italy and the United States qualified for the London Olympics by finishing first and second respectively in the B final, with Canada and Germany missing out narrowly.

In the women's quadruple scull, the US again came second, this time to a strong Germany team following a powerful late sprint to the line.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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