WARRINGTON rowers Richard Egington and Olivia Whitlam helped Britain gain its biggest World Cup medal tally of all time in Spain at the weekend.

Egington’s first international outing since gaining Olympic silver in Beijing brought gold medal success in the new men’s four boat, while Whitlam, a finalist in China last summer, made it double gold in the women’s eight and pair boats.

They can expect some tougher challenges when stronger nations join the fold for the next round in Munich from June 19 to 21.

Egington had the company of fellow Beijing silver boys Matt Langridge and Alex Partridge as well as newcomer Alex Gregory in the men’s four and stormed through the final 300m to win in style.

“It’s good to be racing again,” said Egington.

“We’ve only been together for a while and we even made big improvements while in Spain. It’s been quite an interesting few weeks.”

They built a long lead by the halfway mark and by 1,500m were more than a length up on their nearest challengers - the Czech Republic.

Olivia Whitlam and her partner Louisa Reeve held off a determined challenge from Russia, with whom they swapped the lead on several occasions, to take gold in the women’s pair.

They had built a lead at 1,500m and controlled the race in the final 300m.

Whitlam and Reeve helped form the women’s eight that dominated a two-boat final with Poland.