Britain win two golds at Worlds

WORLD ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Venue: Poznan, Poland Dates: 23-30 August Coverage: Finals live on the red button, the BBC Sport website and 5 live sports extra; Highlights on BBC TWO

Replay - Aggar wins in world record time

By Martin Gough
BBC Sport in Poznan

Paralympic champion Tom Aggar won his second world title in Poland after dominating the arms-only single sculls.

And Great Britain's mixed coxed four also took gold, beating Italy, who pushed them into third in Beijing.

Londoner Aggar, 25, finished 15 seconds ahead of nearest rival Andrii Kryvchun of Ukraine, recording a new personal best of four minutes 51.48 seconds.

"I went out not just to try and win but to put a good score on the board to sum up my season," he told BBC Sport.

Kryvchun took the early lead but Aggar soon established his dominance and was already four seconds up by the 500m halfway mark.

"I expected him to come out hard but I kept a steady head," said the former rugby player with Saracens development squad, who suffered a spinal injury away from the playing field in 2006.

A large group of family and friends were in Poznan to watch Aggar defend his world title.

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He added: "I'm chuffed that they came out. It means that bit more because they're here."

The coxed four is racing in a new line-up this year, with Dave Smith, James Roe and cox Rhiannon Jones joining Paralympic bronze medallists Vicky Hansford and Naomi Riches.

They conceded a slight early lead to Paralympic champions Italy but a long, relaxed rhythm saw them pull through to win by a length, with Germany third.

"The competition has stepped up yet again but we've risen to the challenge," said veteran Riches.

Roe added: "This is an amazing experience, an amazing atmosphere, completely different from anything else I've experienced before."

In the mixed double (raced without using the legs) GB's James Roberts and Samantha Scowen were fifth behind Ukraine after a difficult preparation period, with new arrival Scowen carrying a knee injury.

Ukraine's Alla Lysenko won the women's arms-only single event, in the absence of GB's Paralympic champion Helene Raynesford, who has been ill this season but is hoping to be back in action next year.

Hong Kong won the coxed fours for intellectually disabled athletes from Italy but those were the only two entrants the first running of the event, which is not part of the Paralympics.