On a day when world record times tumbled, Lossiemouth's Heather Stanning took gold in the coxless pairs final of the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam along with partner Helen Glover, adding a world title to the Olympic gold the two women won in London two years ago.
In the process, Glover and Stanning took more than three seconds off a world's best time that had stood for 12 years. The victory marks a first world title for Stanning.
Following her Olympic triumph, she returned to active duty as an army captain in Afghanistan, and only returned to full training at the start of this season. In her absence, Edinburgh's Polly Swann, who races in today's eights final, partnered Glover to last year's world and this year's European titles.
Speaking about her comeback, Stanning said: "We've not had the most consistent season so it's great to come here and have three really strong races and end it with a really good row."
She declared her new world champion status brought a combination of delight and relief.
"They were fast conditions out there and the rest of the field were working hard behind us," Stanning said. "Having USA and New Zealand on either side of us egged us on and kept us going.
"We've talked about our fast start, which we've been able to do for a long time. We focused on getting the start right, but over the season we've worked more on our middle 1000 metres."
Indeed, the British duo were ahead from the first stroke of the final, leading Romania through the first timing mark at 500 metres. By the halfway point, Romania were still just within a length of the British pair, but a big push by Glover and Stanning gave them a clear water lead.
After this, the Romanians faltered, while USA took up the challenge. However, the British pair remained unflustered and crossed the line just over one length ahead of USA, while New Zealand edged out Romania for bronze.
Stanning was equally delighted to have captured the gold medal in a world-record time. "We knew it was within us, so that's a really nice thing to have as well," she said.
The duo's medal was one of two UK golds yesterday, the other success coming in the men's fours, while the men's pair and quadruple sculls crews won silvers.
Two other Scots were involved in yesterday's action. Glaswegian Imogen Walsh and her partner, Olympic champion Kat Copeland, set a world best time as they won the "B" final of the lightweight double sculls, to rank seventh overall.
With Victoria Meyer-Laker from Premney in Aberdeenshire on board, the GB's women's quadruple sculls crew finished third in their "B" final, to rank ninth overall.
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