Rarely can revenge have been so brutal or as comprehensive as that inflicted by the Great Britain men's four yesterday, both on the course at the Munich World Cup and the opponents who had embarrassed them at the same venue in last year's World Championships. Attacking from the start, the crew led by almost a length after 500 metres and never looked in difficulty as they won by six seconds.

For so long, back to the days of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, the four has been Britain's flagship crew, the banker that could be relied upon to deliver gold, but yesterday it was hard to move without seeing Britain rowers festooned with medals. Five golds and three silvers from the finals was, in the words of David Tanner, the Britain performance director, “exceptional and, in several cases, completely dominant”.

The women's quad, perhaps more deserving of the “flagship” tag, given that they have won eight of the past ten World Cup regattas and three World Championships titles, cruised to victory and there were other wins for the men's single and double scull and the lightweight men's double. The men's eight, lightweight men's four and lightweight women's single won silver.

The main story, however, was the four's redemption. Victory in a World Cup regatta will never make up for finishing outside the medals in September last year, but it was an emphatic way of announcing that this crew is back in business, particularly with less than three months to go to the Beijing Olympics.

“The first thing I thought as we crossed the finish line was, ‘Why didn't we do that last year?'” Peter Reed, the naval officer who rows at No3, said.

New Zealand, the world champions, were not in Munich, but Italy and the Netherlands, who had finished ahead of Britain at the World Championships, were drummed out of the medals yesterday. “I've had seven months of questioning myself, so it is good to have belief back,” Andrew Triggs Hodge, the stroke, said. “That is the best start to a season we have had.”

He paid tribute to Tom Lucy, 20, who was elevated into the four last week after Tom James tweaked a rib in training. “He came into one of the hardest seats and showed his power,” Hodge said.

It raises an intriguing selection dilemma before the second World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, at the end of this month. James had replaced Alex Partridge in the four only recently as a way of solving the problems that cost them a World Championships medal and deserves his chance. Lucy is likely to return, with immense thanks, to join Partridge in the eight for Lucerne. “It's nice to have someone like that in our pocket,” Tanner said.

The four seemed fresh and perky after their win, as did Katherine Grainger and the rest of the quad. “I felt a lot more composure and more control than last year,” Grainger said.

Alan Campbell, by contrast, gave every bit of himself to winning Britain's first gold of the day in the single scull, the most gruelling event. Exhausted, his legs shaking from the build-up of lactic acid, Campbell contemplated the exertions that had taken him past a field that had won 15 World Cup titles between them in the past seven years. Normally a fast finisher, Campbell, changed tactics to blitz the competition from the start, pushing ahead after 350 metres and building a lead of 2.5sec that was slowly eroded but not passed by Ondrej Synek, the World Championships silver-medal winner from the Czech Republic.

“I'm pleased that all the training I did over the winter went well,” Campbell, from Coleraine, Northern Ireland, said. That training involved rising at dawn on Christmas Day to run up and down giant sand dunes, then spending an hour sawing wood before lunch.

Tanner was keen to advocate caution. A few leading rowers were not in Munich, such as Mahe Drysdale, the world champion single sculler from New Zealand, and much water will pass under the oars before Beijing, but as a sign of expectations, Tanner pointed to the lightweight men's four, world champions but beaten into second yesterday by 0.59sec.

“They are miserable, but a year ago they were winning silvers and bronzes and it meant the world to them,” Tanner said.

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