Guiseley's Debbie Flood won a silver medal as part of the women's quadruple scull that competed in the World Cup series in Amsterdam at the weekend.

The heavens opened at the Bosbann Lake just as the final started, and China led by three-quarters of a length at the half-way point and, more worryingly by the same margin at the two-thirds mark.

In the final 200 metres, Great Britain pulled back to slightly overlap China but there was no doubting the winners, with the Chinese jubilant and the British despondent.

"I'd rather know now that they can do that rather than find out in Beijing next year," said Flood's team-mate Frances Houghton of the Chinese.

Hebden's Andy Hodge showed his versatility by helping Great Britain to gold on a historic day at the World Cup in Amsterdam.

Hodge is normally part of a world-class men's four including Alex Partridge, Steve Williams and Peter Reed.

However, the quartet, who were supplemented by the world champion men's pair, plus James Orme and Marcus Bateman, won the men's eight race.

And the GB squad eight took bronze in the race on a weekend when Britain qualified two crews for a race for the first time.

The British eights, with Hodge's composite squad in front, were leading with a third of the race remaining.

However, China closed and, although they nudged ahead of the squad eight, they failed to catch the new eight, who took gold by half a canvas in a dramatic race for the line.

Great Britain performance director David Tanner said: "What an amazing result for our men's eights.

"Our gold-medal winners demonstrated that they are world-class rowers but the best story for me is the huge step forward that's been taken by our squad eight who took bronze."

The third and final World Cup meet will be held in mid-July in Lucerne, Switizerland, which take place before the World Championships in Munich in August.