The Germans took the lead at 500 metres but Italy overhauled them and held on to finish comfortably clear.

Norway came through late to win a close battle for bronze, finishing 0.34 seconds ahead of Austria.

"We said before the race to go off hard and then try to improve on this," said Italy's Matteo Mulas.

"So we pushed at 1,000 metres and we were able to finish it off later on.

"Now we are hoping to be at the European Championships in Glasgow."

Another reigning world champion, Roman Polianskyi of Ukraine, also maintained his standing in a hugely competitive final - the Para-PR1 men's single sculls.

A huge entry meant crews went through heats, repechages and semi-finals to get all the way to the A-final.

Polianskyi got out to the fastest start and stayed clear of Russia's Alexy Chuvashev, bronze medallist at last year's World Championships, with Britain's Andrew Houghton coming through for bronze.

"I'm quite tired because it is my third race at this World Cup so I need to find tactics to economise for each race," said Polianskyi.

"But I'm looking forward to the World Championships."

The world champion in the women's Para-PR1 single sculls, Birgit Skarstein of Norway, also won gold with flying colours, having taken 23 seconds of her own world best time in the test race.

Germany's Jason Osborne added to his collection of medals from the lightweight men's double sculls by adding a gold in the lightweight men's singles.

Osborne took a very early lead at the 500m mark and held on to finish in front of Switzerland's Michale Schmid and Italy’s Martino Goretti, racing his first international event in singles.

"The result in the time trial had me thinking I was not as fit as I want to be but this race was really surprising and showed me I can really put some distance to the others," said Osborne.

Poland's Joanna Dorociak took the women's lightweight sculls with similar tactics, holding off the challenge of Christine Cavallo of the United States, who holds the world record in the lightweight category on the indoor rowing machine.

Dorociak maintained her lead, as Alena Furman of Belarus pushed into second place and Clara Guerra of Italy raised her rate to move past Cavallo.

"It was my first win in the single so obviously I'm very happy with that," said Dorociak.

"I knew I was fast coming out of the time trial but it helps that I had good competition to help me."

Brazil beat Austria to the lightweight men's pair title.

Britain's Daniel Brown and Oliver Stanhope took the Para-PR3 men's pair title, pushing past the French leaders in the third 500m.

The Para-PR2 women's singles sculls - a new boat class this year - was won by France's Perle Bouge over Annika van der Meer of The Netherlands.

Corne De Koning of The Netherlands won the Para-PR2 men's single sculls title from Laurence Whiteley and Gianfilippo Mirabile of Italy.

De Koning later teamed up with Van der Meer and returned to the water to win the Para-PR2 mixed double sculls title over Brazil and Poland.

"That hurt a little as it was my second race today," said De Koning. 

"There was a little crosswind in the middle but it felt good."

Austria won the Para-PR3 mixed double sculls in front of Ukraine.