Great Britain reaped a record Olympic harvest at the London 2012 rowing regatta which concluded yesterday with the host nation claiming two of the four concluding finals.

Arguably the most successful day in British rowing history began with Alex Gregory, Pete Reed, Tom James and Andrew Triggs Hodge winning the country’s fourth successive men’s four title.

The home crew led from the first stroke to deny arch rivals Australia, with the United States taking bronze.

After maintaining the host nation’s grip on the division, Triggs Hodge said: “That was our masterpiece, it took four years to make.”

James added: “When it started raining I knew this was our day. The atmosphere was epic, magic, phenomenal.”

Next to take to the water at Eton Dorney were Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking who won Britain’s first ever lightweight women’s double sculls gold.

Clear water separated the winners from China, with world champions Greece in third place.

“We’ll be on a (postage) stamp tomorrow,” beamed Copeland who had only teamed up with Hosking this year.

That result doubled Britain’s gold haul from Beijing and matched the four titles they won back in 1908, in London.

There were high hopes of a third gold courtesy of defending champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter in the lightweight double sculls but they had to settle for silver after being pipped by Danish duo Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist.

That silver pushed Britain’s total medal tally to nine, a record and left them clear at the top of the final rowing medals table from New Zealand, who finished the week with three golds, and Germany.

The Olympic hosts were unrepresented in the last of this week’s 14 finals, the women’s single sculls, which produced a runaway winner in the guise of Czech Republic rower Miroslava Knapkova.