Matthew Pinsent joined the Olympic immortals this morning when he led the coxless four to gold for Britain after the tightest of photo finishes on an unforgettable morning at the Schinias rowing centre.

The man from Eton, who had garnered three Olympic golds while racing in the shadow of Sir Steven Redgrave, made it four in a row to go within one of the record of his big pal and Britain's greatest Olympian.

But the margin over Canada was the blink of an eye - just eight hundreths of a second.

For James Cracknell it was his second gold to go with the one he won in Sydney, while for Ed Coode and Steve Williams it was their first taste of Olympic triumph.

What a fantastic ending to a story which had been bedevilled by disruption, injury and political in-fighting for the best part of 18 months.

Endorsement

And what an endorsement of the talents of German coach Jurgen Grobler who ruthlessly axed Tony Garbett and Rick Dunn from the boat to incorporate Pinsent and Cracknell from their ill-fated initial challenge in the pairs.

In the end it was a crew which had been together just six weeks and had rowed just one regatta before coming to Athens.

But with Pinsent's inspiration and good old-fashioned British grit and determination the four saw off the challenge of the technically superior Canadians. Fans, nervous with anticipation but buoyed by the earlier silver won by Kath Grainger and Cath Bishop in the women's pairs and the bronze gathered by Sarah Winckless and Elise Laverick in the women's double sculls, were swiftly roaring their support as Britain took an early lead at 500m, however, the margin was just 0.41 seconds with the Canadian danger boat holding its form and Australia third.

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