Team GB achieved a total of six gold, five silver and a bronze, compared to Australia’s four gold, five silver and five bronze medals.

 

Rowers and spectators endured scorching temperatures of around 37 degrees celcius at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith today, with teams such as New South Wales utilising ice baths between races to keep cool.

 

The women’s quadruple skulls of Francis Fletcher, Rachel Jeffries, Stephanie Mottram and Emma Steel, went ahead early on establishing a 3.5 second lead by the halfway mark.

 

The crew led from start to finish, their gold-medal winning time of 6min 55.41sec, comfortably ahead of the Tasmanian boat which finished in second.

 

The women’s coxless four started their final in typically fine form. They had a one second lead on the New Zealand crew at 1,000m, but the boat was adding pressure and it wasn’t until the 1,750m mark that Team GB had a comfortable lead.

 

The four of Vicky Bryant, Rosanna Collings, Stephanie McDowall and Jaqui Round claimed the gold medal ahead of New South Wales and Victoria in a time of 7.03.67.

 

 

 

The blue ribbon event of British rowing, the men’s coxless four did not disappoint. The GB boat built on the lead they established early on and finished the race in the gold-medal winning position well ahead of the rest of the field.

 

Lewis Beech, Tom Lucy, Nataniel Reilly-O’Donnell and Mohamed Sbihi finished in 6.15.60, ahead of New Zealand in second and Western Australia who came in third.

 

 

 

Beech said they stuck to their game plan. “The only reason we get on the water is to win, and we treated today’s race as no different," he said. "We wanted to have a strong middle 1000m and set a hard pace throughout and the plan worked very well for us today.”

 

 

 

Mohamed Sbihi added that the event was a valuable experience for them. “Competing at the AYOF as a multi-sport event has added another dimension to our racing as it is different to the competitions we are exposed to on a regular basis back in the UK," he said.

 

 

 

In the fifth final of the day the British  women’s eight completed the golden set. Victoria took the lead early and as they approached 1,000m they began to pull away from Team GB and Western Australia in third.

 

Despite having a heavy preparatory programme and all members competing in races earlier in the day - the eight was made up of the crews from the women’s four and women’s quad -  Team GB encroached on the Victoria lead and began to inch ahead.

 

During the third 500m the GB crew surged ahead and finished first in a time of 7.11.48.

 

The men’s eight in the last final of the competition had a lot to live up to after the fantastic performances of their team mates.

 

Going in lane three, Team GB pulled ahead of New Zealand after 500m. In such a high quality field the race was going to be tough and New South Wales took a length lead on the GB crew in the closing stages of the race.

 

Team GB held on and finished in second place behind New South Wales.

 

Britain could be considered unlucky not to have added the men’s eight to their victory list. British performance director David Tanner has revealed that at the 1,000 metre mark, the crew lost control of an oar, forcing the boat to stop before they could continue and finishing fifth.

 

“The men’s eight were a bit unlucky, they caught what we call in rowing a crab at about 1000 metres when they were just ahead and that put them into third place actually, so they did well to come second," he said.

 

"They’re a little bit disappointed, but they’ll learn from that – that’s sport."

 

Despite this, the British team are very happy with their efforts this weekend.

 

“We’re extremely pleased with it," said Tanner. "We had no assumptions before we came here about how we’d do and what the opposition would be.

 

"The opposition has been tough, and we’re really pleased with our results on the medal table."

 

In the pool, Thomas Daley, the youngest competitor at this Festival claimed a silver medal in the boy's 10 metre platform synchronised diving with his partner Callum Johnstone.

 

 

 

The pair, have only been diving together since Christmas, expressed their satisfaction at the result.

 

 

 

“This has been a great competition to gain International experience against some strong opposition," said Johnstone. 

 

"While we are very happy at the result Tom and I know we have a lot of room for improvement and I’m sure there will be more good results to come.”

 

Lee Campion added to Team GB’s medal tally with a silver medal in the men’s trap event.

 

Campion went into the final lying in second place with a 105 score accumulated over two earlier rounds of 25 shots each and the score from the first day of competition yesterday where competitors shot a round of 75.

 

“This is such a bonus, I came out to the AYOF mainly to gain experience of a multi-sport, highly competitive event," said Campion, an 18-year-old from Retford. 

 

"To go home with a medal is great, it was very tense out there, I tried to block everything out and concentrate on my routine.

 

"The ground {Sydney Olympic Shooting Range) is one of the most difficult to shoot at in the world so performance-wise it was excellent practice for us to train and compete there.”

 

To complete an excellent final day for Britain's potential 2012 youngsters, the gymnasts completed their outstanding run at the AYOF with a further three medals.

 

In the second round of the apparatus finals, Louis Smith picked up a bronze medal on the high bar with a score of 14.150. 

 

Kristian Thomas won a silver medal in the men's vault with a score of 15.45, and Danusia Francis put in a brave performance on the beam with a score of 13.70.

 

Britain’s team manager, Vince Walduck said “It’s been a wonderful experience. Thanks for the invitation.

 

"The competition has had a great intense international feel but with a human touch that is so important to these young elite athletes.”