Friday was the hottest May day in London for over 50 years, but it was clear from first thing Saturday morning that finals day was not going to benefit from the same weather, as the notorious Dorney cross winds started to pick up from the start of racing, getting steadily worse as the day went on and only dying down after the last final had finished.

The FISA fairness committee (for there is such a thing) redrew the lanes for the A finals after it became evident that crews in lanes 5 and 6 had a definite advantage, however the B final crews had to suffer the conditions in their original lanes, including the USA pair of Chris Liwiski and Mike Blomquist who managed third in their B final (in lane 2), a length behind the first placed Czech crew (in lane 6).

Their Oxford University crew mates were well represented in the A finals, with a bronze for Canadians Barney Williams and Scott Frandsen in the men’s pair and golds for Andy Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed in the GB men’s straight four.

The other Canadian pair (Hamilton and Rutledge) took silver after a very quick start – though not quite quick enough to catch the Skelin brothers who shot off rating 50 to establish an early lead.

The Hungarian double won the LM2x, but bowman Zsolt Hirling wasn’t giving too much away...“We have a new technical element to our oar and it was the main thing that changed the race to our advantage. I can’t tell you what it is, it’s a secret!”

In a move possibly by the FISA 'unfairness' committee?, the Canadian men’s LM2x won silver only to have their medals removed after being disqualified due to “violation of the advertising rules”, apparently the Bearing Point sponsors logo on Matthew Jensen’s kit, was “covered during the race”. They would have been the first Canadian crew to medal in this class.

Cuban Ismaray Marrero Aria was delighted to win silver in the women’s lightweight single scull and is planning to race again at Lucerne and in the World Champs in Japan. Her fellow countryman came fifth in his A final which was won by Ondrej Synek. Marcel Hacker took silver and Iztok Cop, bronze.

China lived up to expectations and took gold in the women’s eights final, with Romania and GB taking silver and bronze respectively. Most of the Australian crew who came forth had already raced in the women’s pairs final, where they cleaned out, winning bronze, silver and gold, while 6 seat, Fleur Chew – who’d raced in the women’s 1x B final earlier in the day, was a late substitution after the Australian stoke woman, Natalie Bale, was withdrawn due to injury.

The men’s eights final was a close race again, the final order exactly reflecting that in Friday’s race for lanes – Germany – Italy – Great Britain.

And finally, I really have to mention the main media draw of the regatta – the Sydney 2000, straight four re-enactment, aka “defibrillation fours”, which to the casual non-rowing observer could easily have been mistaken as the main race of the regatta. Middle aged men and spandex are rarely a good match – especially as five year old rowing kit tends to have lost its ability to “hold things in”, but the crowds loved it -- even though, for once in their lives, Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent didn’t manage to win gold.

The GB crew came home third in the 500m sprint behind the Slovenians and the Italians. In an ironic twist, this time it was the Italians who were ahead of the Brits by a bow-ball (1:23.29 to the British time of 1:23.87).