Britain keeps faith with Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Peter Reed

In the wake of Britain's best-ever results at Lucerne the men's chief coach, Jürgen Gröbler, has indicated that he will keep faith with his misfiring pair of Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Peter Reed. The two Beijing Olympic fours champions were once again comfortably beaten by New Zealand's seemingly untouchable duo in the season's final World Cup regatta. But though the Kiwis have now notched up 10 successive wins over the British in the last two years Gröbler urged his men to have faith and believe that they can win at the World Championships in New Zealand. It had been thought that after repeated defeats Gröbler might try to switch his two best men into a four, to try to win gold on Lake Karapiro. But Gröbler said: "This is no time to change boats halfway through an Olympic cycle. We must believe in ourselves." With Britain lifting the overall World Cup trophy, the 63‑year‑old was in bullish mood, buoyed by the performance of his men's heavyweight squad, who won a medal in every event. The world champion four, stroked beautifully by Matthew Langridge, produced the stand-out performance from the British men's team, and gave Gröbler the confidence that they could win back‑to‑back World Championship golds in November. They dominated their event, gliding effortlessly across the calm waters of the Rotsee to beat New Zealand's four by a length. That result represented a big turnaround for a crew who were well beaten in Munich three weeks ago. Afterwards, Langridge paid tribute to his coach, Mark Banks, and said: "That win came because we worked really hard on our length and flow over the last three weeks." But as good as the British men were, no individual performance could compare to the sensational results of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, whose two wins in the doubles and quadruple events left them the undisputed stars of the rowing world. First in the doubles, the duo comfortably headed a strong Australian crew. Then, with the help of crewmates Beth Rodford and Annie Vernon, the British held off the challenge of the Ukrainian world champions in the quadruple sculls. An exhausted but elated Grainger said later: "This was a very special result for me because the opposition was so strong." The triple Olympic silver medallist looks to have found a combination that could win gold in 2012.