World Rowing Championships: Awesome twosome in world of their own

Two weddings will not need to be funerals. On 10 October, Matthew Pinsent will marry Dee Koutsoukos at Eton College chapel; 10 days later, James Cracknell will walk down the aisle with Beverley Turner. Both can now do so wearing their rightful regalia as world champions.

In cold statistical terms, the British pair shattered the world record set by Pinsent and Steve Redgrave in Lucerne eight years ago. Emotionally, they left the illusion of Australian supremacy shimmering like shards of broken glass on the waters of the Guadalquivir river. The much-vaunted Australian pair of Jimmy Tomkins and Drew Ginn, who had beaten the flagship crew of the British men's squad with shocking conviction in Lucerne two months ago, were left trailing, finishing fourth behind the South Africans and the Croatians.

"Bury them and move over," Cracknell called after 500m. He wanted to take advantage of their lead by roughening the waters for the Australians in the next lane, but, with the wind freshening down the course all the time, Pinsent heard only the first command. And bury them they did. Their time of 6min 14.27sec was more than four seconds quicker than the old world record.

"We wanted to take the lead in the first half and hold it in the second," said Pinsent. "We didn't want to make it more complicated than that. The only thing we were thinking about was to get a good solid start. After 25 strokes, we had clear water and I thought, 'OK, this is all right'. I looked across at the Aussies and they weren't looking that comfortable and I'm thinking, 'If I'm happy here and you're happy there, then that's OK too'."

The Australians, who took three Olympic golds with them to the start to add to the four in the British boat – and a total of 22 world championship golds – were far from happy. "Those aren't our best conditions," said Tomkins. "We just had a bit of a shocker, but c'est la vie. We can't afford to give those sort of guys that sort of margin. There was a fair bit at stake and we just didn't come to the party."

The past two months had been a painful journey back to the basics for the British pair. Somewhere along the victory trail, which had included the near-impossible feat of winning gold in the coxed and coxless pairs at the last world championships, priorities had become skewed. Unstretched on the water, complacency crept into their work off it.

"It had become too much of a business," as Cracknell said. "We needed to remember why we were doing this, and above all that we were doing this for each other."

There was no doubt at the finish. Cracknell punched the air towards the Australians; Pinsent lay back to be cradled by his partner before the pair rowed past their exhausted rivals back to the pontoon to greet their coach, Jürgen Grobler. Ever the clock-watcher, Grobler was ecstatic about the time, which was only a fraction outside his imaginary standard for gold in Athens two years hence. "We've messed that up, then," said Pinsent.

Grobler's pre-race message was simplicity itself: "No fiddling around." If there was a doubt, it hovered over the 6ft 4in frame of Cracknell, whose restless search for perfection so mirrors Redgrave. This time, he had to be as strong as Redgrave in the mind.

"The pressure was on James," said the five-time Olympic champion. "That's partly down to him. He thinks that if something goes wrong, it's his fault. With Matt, when you need something it's always there. Believe me, I've sat behind him long enough. But they've just taken four seconds off the world record and I know they can go faster."

The seeds for a show of old-fashioned domination had been laid on training camps in the mountains in the six weeks before a race billed as a psychological rehearsal for Athens in 2004. A third victory for the Australians would leave the British pair contemplating a long winter. But the real reaffirmation of trust was completed in the 24 hours before the race.

"We've watched no films or videos, we've just sat in our room pretty quiet," said Cracknell. "We've not felt like eating much and some of the time you're asking, 'Why am I doing this', which was the first time we'd done that since Sydney. It's only halfway through the race you know why you're doing it.

"Steve was very good at bringing the best out of Matt. Maybe I've not done that. So I wanted to give him confidence in the person he had rowing behind him, just as he had with Steve. I reminded him of all the times I'd been there with him and that there was no one stronger than me. I wanted to make sure he listened to every call and that he knew that if he slacked off a second I'd have him."

On the bank before the race, the pundits were split 50-50. The two crews, berthed in the same hangar, did every-thing to avoid eye contact, like heavyweight boxers in their dressing room. Rarely has a race been so eagerly anticipated, a contrast not just of nationality and philosophy, but of character, a rivalry of such potential that the BBC interrupted Football Focus to broadcast the race. "You'd never have imagined that," laughed Cracknell. But it was worth every minute of airtime.

Once Cracknell and Pinsent had opened up a substantial lead in the first 250m, Redgrave was able to relax on the bank. The only blip came in the third quarter, traditionally the Australians' best segment and the British pair's worst, but realistically the rest of the field were rowing for silver by then. The measure of the Britons' pace was that four of the crews broke the old world record.

The only disappointment for the British squad was that the coxless four – Rick Dunn, Toby Garbett, Josh West and Steve Williams – could not defend their title and that the talented women's double scull of Frances Houghton and Debbie Flood finished out of the medals in fourth. The four were beaten into silver by the German crew, while Matt Wells and Ian Lawson, the first British sculling pair to reach an open final for 20 years, finished sixth.

Pinsent and Cracknell can now enjoy a winter of marital content. The Australians have some thinking to do. "Unfinished business," smiled Tomkins. They will be back.