WORCESTER rower Giedre Rakauskaite was a key figure as Britain’s world-beating Paralympic rowing crew claimed an emotional European gold.

The Paralympic champion combined with Ed Fuller, Morgan Fice-Noyes, Frankie Allen and inspirational coxswain Erin Kennedy for gold in the PR3 mixed coxed four class.

Rakauskaite, 31, helped the British crew conquer tough conditions and illness in the camp to retain their European title at Lake Bled, Slovenia.

"This crew’s been really composed, we’ve not had the easiest week with everyone not feeling 100% but we came out and gave a performance," said Kennedy.

"Pressure’s a real privilege because it means something is expected of you and we’ve taken that on and I’m really proud."

Rakauskaite powered Britain to Paralympic gold in the PR3 mixed coxed four class in Tokyo with the crew’s international unbeaten record standing for more than a decade.

She said: "We always want better than what we did. We always put a target in front of ourselves, it’s the nature of how we set ourselves up."

The Championships began exactly one year to the day since Kennedy was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Following 15 rounds of chemotherapy, she had a double mastectomy in January and was given the all-clear a few weeks later, marking her return to rowing with European gold.

"It means so much,” said the 30-year-old. "I’ve kept a lot of emotion in over the last week and over the last year.

"I was quite poorly at last year’s Europeans and managed to make it through, so to be back here doing it again with a new-look combination, it means so much.

"This has been a marker in my calendar for a long time."

The crew’s next focus will be qualifying for a second Games in Paris at September’s World Championships in Belgrade.

Rakauskaite added: "It was really good to have Erin back with us. I really missed her, so it’s wonderful."

British Rowing is the governing body for the sport and is responsible for the development of rowing in England and the training and selection of rowers to represent Great Britain. The GB Rowing Team is supported by the National Lottery Sports Fund. To find out more, and to follow the team, head to https://www.britishrowing.org/