KATHERINE Grainger and Sarah Winckless have been crowned World Champions, six months after being pipped to the gold medal.

Their silver medals were upgraded this week after the winning' Russian quadruple scull quad were disqualified because Olga Samulenkova tested positive for testosterone.

The Marlow pair and colleagues Debbie Flood and Frances Houghton, are now waiting for their long overdue gold medals.

Grainger said: "It's probably the strangest way ever to win the World Championships, six months on and the dust had settled.

"One morning we're training in the gymnasium and our coach pulls us out to tell us we're World Champions - it's full of very mixed emotions.

"We're obviously delighted to have the world title back but it's never the way you want to do it."

The British crew struggled to hold back the tears when they thought their world title dream had been snatched away from them by the Russians at Dorney Lake in August and although they are delighted to get gold now, they say this was not the way they wanted to do it.

Grainger said: "You never get the day on the podium back.

"The Russians enjoyed that day when they shouldn't have because they cheated to do so.

"They got to enjoy that day and have had it rightly taken it away now but we'll never have those memories or enjoy what they had.

"Everybody had family and friends who had travelled to be there on the day to support us and obviously they all had an awful day because we didn't get the result we wanted and they were disappointed for us."

Winckless echoed Grainger's thoughts.

She said: "It's very surreal and very mixed.

"We went out to win a gold medal in front our home crowd but we didn't by half a second and that's something that's been very hard to handle and we've all dealt with in our own way.

"Suddenly we're told we are World Champions, we did row a fantastic race and that the people we were rowing against had changed the playing field.

"To be training so hard and find that a girl in the team that beat us had cheated, is very hard to take and also you start questioning why we put so much in for it to end like that?

"Luckily we love the sport so we're not going to let the cheats win."

The golden girls still don't know when they will get their rightful medals though.

Winckless said: "We don't know anything about the medals. We've not been asked to give back the silvers yet, we're still waiting to find out.

"We don't know if we get their medals or brand new ones or what, nobody's really told us what happens next.

"We're just playing a waiting game but it's great to know we're World Champions again."