GB grab another rowing gold

Great Britain celebrated double gold medal glory on an historic Super Saturday with the women's double sculls also claiming Olympic glory.

Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Tom James and Alex Gregory beat arch-rivals Australia to win Britain's fourth consecutive Olympic title in the coxless fours.

And in the very next race, Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland, who only came together this year, won Britain's fourth rowing gold medal of the Olympic Games.

The British crew were roared to victory by over a length, with China in second and Greece in third.

Britain have now matched the four gold medals they won at the 1908 Games to make London 2012 their most successful Olympic regatta in over a century.

Britain extended their dynasty in the men's four in stunning fashion, lead

Australia from the start before powering to victory in six minutes, 03.97

seconds.

Hodge, James and Reed are all now double Olympic champions, having been part of the victorious crew in Beijing.

Olympic debutant Gregory adds an Olympic gold medal to the world championship title he won as part of a different men's four crew last year.

Hodge and Reed moved into the pair after Beijing and spent three years trying, and failing, to overhaul the dominant New Zealand crew of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.

At the start of 2012, Hodge and Reed moved back into Britain's flagship boat and opened the season promisingly with World Cup victories in Belgrade and Lucerne.

Australia hit back in Munich to take gold and Ginn suggested their tactic of leading from the front "scared the hell'' out of Great Britain.

In the end, it was Britain who led from the outset to win a sensational gold medal in the only race that really mattered.

The victory also extended the remarkable record of chief men's coach Jurgen Grobler, who has now won prepared gold medal-winning crews at nine Olympic Games.

Grobler joined GB Rowing in 1991 and he has never failed to deliver an Olympic gold medal.

Copeland, who almost quit rowing two years ago because she wanted to remain based in the north east, and Hosking only came together in a boat at the start of the 2012 World Cup series.

There was little to indicate the glory that was to come as they won a bronze in Belgrade before finishing outside the medals in Lucerne and Munich.

But no-one could live with Copeland and Hosking at the Olympic Games as they accelerated clear of the field to win an historic gold medal for Britain.