Great Britain rowers Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins won Britain’s sixth gold medal of the Olympics by beating Australia by more than a length in the final of the women’s double sculls.

Katherine Grainger, Britain’s most successful Olympic female rower, has finally won her elusive gold medal, which she described “the people’s medal”. Grainger and Watkins have been unbeaten in 22 races since pairing up in 2010.

Katherine Grainger with the help of her doubles sculling partner Anna Watkins won their race with a time of six minutes, 55.82 seconds. Australia finished a close second with six minutes, 58.55 seconds and Poland took the third place with seven minutes, 7.92 seconds.

“I just can’t believe it. I had to asked Katherine if it was a dream. I can’t quite believe it’s got to this point,” Watkins said after the race. It is the second rowing gold for Britain’s women, with Heather Stanning and Helen Glover wining Team GB’s first gold medal in the pairs on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, George Nash and William Satch won bronze in the men’s pair final just months after they were placed together. New Zealand pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond stormed away to win gold, with the French pair of Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette winning silver medal.

The sixth gold has pushed Britain ahead of France and Germany in the medals table. US and China tied at the top of the medal table with 18 gold medals each at the end of day 6 of London 2012 Olympics.

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