Rotorua's Julia Edward and rowing partner Sophie MacKenzie won gold at the World Rowing Championships in France overnight.
Edward and MacKenzie went into the A final of the women's lightweight double scull event as the crew to beat late last night (NZT). They easily won their semifinal on Thursday and were looking to defend their world title which they won last year at the world champs.
Edward and MacKenzie produced an outstanding race in the A final pushing into the lead in the third quarter of the race before storming home to take the win in a time of 6:53.01 minutes. Great Britain were about a second back in second and South Africa finished third.
Edward was delighted after the race.
"We're so stoked, we're double world champions now, we're very very excited - our smiles say it all. I had full confidence in Sophie going through halfway we were all pretty level but I was very confident in our last 500 metres.