The team of Andy Triggs-Hodge, Peter Reed, Steve Williams and Tom James were joined on the medal podium by Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham and Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington, who won bronze in their respective double scull events.

 

The coxless fours won a thrilling race in which they trailed the Australians by three-quarters of a length and were having to hold off the Slovenians with 500 metres to go.

 

However, the Australians began to tire and Britain upped their stroke rate to row down their opponents leaving the rest of the field in their wake as they added the gold medal to the one's won in Sydney in 2000, remembered for being Steve Redgrave's fifth Olympic title, and Athens four years ago, Matthew Pinsent's fourth.

 

Appropriately, both Sir Steve and Sir Matthew on the riverbank commentating on the race for BBC.

 

The power from the British quartet was breathtaking and they rightly received a standing ovation from the thousands of British supporters on the riverbank.

 

They received their medals from Denis Oswald, the president of rowing's world governing body Fisa and the chairman of the International Olympic Committee Co-ordination Commission monitoring London's preparations for 2012.

 

Hodge said: "I don't know where that last 250m came from.

 

"I was in so much pain - I've never been in that pain in my entire life."

 

Williams, who also won alongside Pinsent and James Cracknell four years ago, said the effort in the closing stages was "primeval".

 

He said: "That was very tough, I am absolutely delighted.

 

"For the last four to five months our coach Jurgen Grobler has told us, 'There's no-one who can beat you', but some days you don't feel like that.

 

"I didn't realise we were ahead until very close to the finish.

 

"I just had a sniff that we could do it in the last 200m.

 

"The last 10-15 strokes were phenomenal.

 

"It was beyond skill, it was just something primeval."

 

Recent recruit to the boat James added: "I nearly blacked out in the last 250m."

 

Earlier, Wells and Rowbotham had pushed their opposition close, finishing just 1.33 seconds behind gold medallists David Crawshaw and Scott Brennan from Australia and Estonia's Tonu Endrekson and Juri Jaanson.

 

Rowbotham said: "We dreamed about winning the gold medal before the regatta.

 

“We knew it was going to be a very good race.

 

“It’s very disappointing not to get the gold, and extremely disappointing not to get the silver - but we’d never pass up an Olympic medal.

 

“However I’m so proud of what me and Matt have achieved over the past three years and the results have paid off - we’re delighted.”

 

Wells said: “On just the last couple of strokes we were hanging on in there and I thought we had it. Then they were coming and coming and I was thinking, ‘Line please come, line'.

 

“I think the Australians did something very special there.

 

"Going into the regatta they looked very good all the way through but we had a really good race so I’m pleased.”

 

Laverick and Bebington had conjured up a storming surge to take the bronze in a dramatic finish to the women's doubles sculls.

 

The pair missed out on gold by just 0.23 of a second as the New Zealand crew of identical twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindells defended the title they won in Athens by the narrowest of margins, beating the German boat by just one-hundredth of a second.

 

Bebington said: "If you'd told us yesterday that we would have been in a position where we might have won a silver medal I would have laughed at you.

 

"We're absolutely over the moon, it's amazing."