Three-time Olympic silver medallist Katherine Grainger has made the perfect start to her international single scull career by claiming gold at the Banyoles World Cup in Barcelona.

The 33-year-old from Glasgow claimed two of her three Olympic silvers, at Beijing 2008 and Sydney 2000, in the quadruple sculls, while the other came in the pair at Athens 2004.

But with London 2012 more than three years away, Grainger has opted to go it alone in the single scull in a bid to finally capture that elusive Olympic gold.

And she could not have asked for a better start to her campaign, as she romped into an early lead at 500m over Brett Sickler of the USA.

By 1000m had stretched that lead to two seconds. With three-quarters of the race behind her, Grainger had built a four second gap, before she came home in 7:56.40 minutes.

"I'm over the moon," she said. "I wanted to try the single as a personal test but I didn't dream of winning.

?It wasn't the strongest field but you can only race the people who are here. I'm ecstatic to have won. I could not have asked for more.?