Great Britain and Molesey Boat Club’s George Nash may be holding a World Rowing Championship gold medal but he insisted he did not return to the crew in the best of form.

Nash, with clubmates Andrew Triggs Hodge and Moe Sbihi won gold in the men’s eight in South Korea on Sunday, the first time GB have taken the top spot.

However, when Nash first returned to the crew for the final regatta of the Samsung World Cup in Lucerne in July, GB finished a disappointing fourth.

Nash, who had been away studying for exams at Cambridge Univeristy, said: "I was probably not at my best physically when I came back into the boat but we have done some really good training since then.

"It has been a real pleasure working with everyone else. It's been a real professional and positive atmosphere in the heavyweight men's group and particularly in this eight.”

He added: "I am really, really happy and chuffed that we pulled it off today as I definitely was confident but also nervous about us not quite doing it.

“I know that we are fast but I didn't know if we were quite fast enough. It was awesome to be on the right side of it. It was an awesome race to part of one of Jurgen's boats to feel what it is like".

GB took the top spot ahead of Germany by just 0.54 seconds, with USA taking bronze more than three seconds behind the leading duo.

Triggs Hodge: "Today was just about performing what we know we could do. We had a glimmer of that in the heats. Also, we have those memories of Lucerne and even Dorney in our minds. They weren't very good rows.

“We knew we could perform at the highest level, it was just a case of doing it. So all the way down the course, for every stroke we wanted to execute it clinically and coldly but with gallons of passion on top.”

He added: “We knew we had to be good to beat that German eight. We knew that we they wouldn't lie down at let us take their event.

"We could feel the power and we never let up. Riding that was just phenomenal, it was really great to be part of it. That was phenomenal".