The British coxless IV continued an honourable tradition by winning gold at the Shunyi Rowing Lake. The heritage was first laid down by Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in Sydney eight years ago and was carried on by Pinsent by a mere fraction of a second in Athens. But this was a new crew, who had only started racing together in July.

Redgrave, Pinsent and James Cracknell, a double gold medallist from Sydney and Athens, were all on the bank watching the race unfold. They would have been proud of their successors – Andy Hodge, Peter Reed, Steve Williams and Tom James – who had won both their heat and the semi-final in impressive style and yesterday had to overhaul a big Australian at halfway. Stroke by stroke they rowed down the Australians until 200m before the line the yellow bow of their boat forged into the lead to bring victory by 1.28 seconds in 6.06.52.

Victory was also a triumph for Jurgen Grobler, the head coach of the men’s international squad, who stuck by his flagship crew after their disastrous defeat in the last world championships and through an injury-hit summer. Though James was selected in May to replace Alex Partridge in the IV, which had gone 27 races unbeaten through two seasons before last year, the Cambridge blue only recovered from a niggling back injury for the last world cup regatta of the summer in Poznan.

But, after an arduous training camp in Silvretta before the Olympics, the British crew emerged refreshed and technically more efficient. They have dominated this regatta in a manner worthy of their illustrious predecessors.

There was a bronze in the double sculls for Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington, who lost out to the Evers Swindell twins from New Zealand by just 0.23 seconds in a thrilling three-way finish. Germany were pipped by 1/100th of a second. Steve Rowbotham and Matt Wells also took a bronze in the men’s double sculls. But Alan Campbell’s valiant attempt to win a medal in the single sculls just a month after undergoing surgery on his knee ended with a fifth place finish. The gold was won by defending champion, Olaf Tufte of Norway, ahead of Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. The Northern Irishman led at the 500m mark but fell back through the middle part of the race.