Nine gold medals in nine Olympic Games going back to 1972, plus a few more in other metals, is an astounding haul for a coach in any sport, but Jürgen Grobler wants more. Don’t bet against a tenth (perhaps even an eleventh or twelfth) gold for Grobler in 2012 after the German signed up for four more years as head coach of the Great Britain men’s rowing squad.

The former East Germany coach will turn 66 during the London Games and said that the 2006 World Championships, on what will be the Olympic course at Eton, had persuaded him to continue his 17-year relationship with Britain for another Olympiad.

“That’s a big challenge,” Grobler said of 2012 yesterday. “I’d really like to be part of that. I had a little sniff of what it will be like at the 2006 World Championships, with the great atmosphere, and I’m sure we can produce something outstanding for the home crowd. It is early to be setting targets, but on the men’s side we should not go below three medals. That’s half of the ones they can win and, of course, we will aim for the best colour.”

Grobler’s crews won a gold, silver and bronze (for the men’s four, eight and double sculls respectively) on the Shunyi lake in Beijing, while the same full set was won by the women’s and lightweight crews, whose head coach is Paul Thompson. The good news for Britain is that Thompson has also signed for another four-year term.

The former Australia coach was poached by David Tanner, the Great Britain performance director, in the canteen at the Olympic village in Sydney in 2000. Last year Thompson trumped Grobler when his boats won two world championship titles, for the women’s quad and lightweight four, to Grobler’s none.

“I’m one of you guys,” Thompson said yesterday. “I’m in this strange situation where my Aussie mates give me grief for being a Pom and my Pommie mates complain that I’m an Aussie, but I’m a proper Pom now.”

While the lightweight four did not win a medal in Beijing and the quad came second, Thompson saw his lightweight men’s double of Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter continue a 13-race winning streak in 2008. “We could have had three golds from the women and lightweights,” he said. “We’re two weeks into this Olympiad and the planning now is to turn some of the medals into shinier ones.”

Thompson will be aided again by Darren Whiter, a former PE instructor with the Metropolitan Police, who coached Purchase and Hunter. Thrown together last year after dominating the British trials, Purchase and Hunter were moulded into a world-class unit in barely 16 months, but Hunter may not be there in 2012. Having waited until his 30th year to win his first World Cup title, he has taken a year’s break from rowing to coach at UCLA in Los Angeles.

If it is situation unchanged for rowing, Great Britain’s sailing team, who won four gold medals in China, are resigned to losing one of their key coaches. Pete Cunningham, the long-serving senior sports science officer, will take up the same role with Britain’s TeamOrigin for the 33rd America’s Cup. “He’ll be impossible to replace,” Iain Percy, the gold medal-winner in the Star class, said.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for Pete,” Stephen Park, the sailing manager, said. “He has worked with us for 20 years. You expect that there’s going to be some change, but we hope to keep the key people.”

One of those is Park himself, who has been running the Olympic programme since the Sydney Games. “There are other countries that have approached me and I am certain that will be the same for other members of our staff,” Park said. “That is a risk in any successful business and it is just whether you can provide enough reason for people to stay involved with a winning project."