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Team GB: New heroes
The challenge from here is to take this on another stage towards the next Olympics, which just happen to be in London.
David Tanner.
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Rowing chief David Tanner insists plans are already under way for a successful campaign at the London 2012 Olympics.
Team GB beat their own official target of four medals in Beijing, winning two golds, two silvers and two bronzes to finish as the most successful nation in the rowing competition.
Twenty-three of the 43-strong British team return home with medals after six of the record 10 finalists all finished in podium positions.
British rowing performance director David Tanner is adamant the athletes will not rest on their laurels.
"The challenge from here is to take this on another stage towards the next Olympics, which just happen to be in London," said Tanner.
"The new Olympiad started about five minutes ago. We are already into it and we are aspiring.
"Whether the next Olympics were in London, Rio or Sydney I would still be thinking the same thing. Our job is to step on and we have to be about improving.
"We have got some hungry youngsters coming through. Talent ID is one of the biggest challenges in British sport generally. Finding new heroes or people who can be new heroes is a big thing.
Funding the key
Britain won rowing medals in Sydney and Athens but they only managed four finalists at each Olympics, whereas this year that mark was more than doubled and Tanner sees the funding as one of the key factors for the Beijing success.
"The lottery funding has allowed the rowers to take space out of their normal lives to train and train very hard. We also have an increasingly top team of coaches at both the senior and junior levels," said Tanner.
While Tanner is ready to continue with the building, the British rowing team are just basking in the glory of the best Olympic regatta for Team GB since 1908.
Steve Williams became a double Olympic champion after the men's four produced a finish he described as "primeval" to overhaul the Australia and win Britain a third consecutive gold in the event.
For the first time on that golden run back to Sydney 2000, the crew contained neither Matthew Pinsent nor Steven Redgrave and British rowing have four new heroes.
Steve Williams, now a double Olympic champion, linked arms on the victory pontoon with stroke man Andy Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and the crew's relative newcomer Tom James.
Together they had battled through a season of injuries and self-doubt, poor form and poor fortune to win Olympic gold in only their fifth major race together.
Journey
"We really paid for that victory with our souls," Williams said.
"It has been really tough. Athens was an epic journey but I think we possibly topped that this year."
With Pinsent and Redgrave now on the media circuit, James said before the race that someone had to start a new era for British rowing.
The following afternoon, Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase produced a commanding performance to win gold in the lightweight double's sculls.
Victory - Britain's first in a lightweight category - extended their unbeaten record to 13 races but they also had to dig into the depths of their character to seal gold after Greece staged a late comeback.
"That is the depth which you need to dig to produce a finish like that. You have to go through it to get the gain," Tanner added.
"To succeed in an endurance sport like that you have got to go through the black times.
"That is why we had 10 boats in the final when a lot of other boats were falling over. We have that conditioning - no pain, no gain."
Britain also won silver in the men's eight while the men and women's double sculls both took bronze in tight finishes.
