Today's men's eight final at the Henley Royal Regatta was a 'top of the bill' race between the World Champions, Great Britain, and Germany, Olympic Champions.
Screamed home by the famous Henley crowd, the GB eight put in a storming performance to defend their title and win by clear water.
The British eight was super-fast out of the blocks, had built a big lead and powered over the line.
In this fascinating duel between two of the top crews in the world in the sport's blue riband event, the score this season now stands at 2-1 to the British crew - many of whom had been following the women's world cup football results.
Germany won the European title in May, Great Britain won in Varese at the recent World Cup and Germany had hoped to shake British confidence at home. It was not to be. Round four will be in Lucerne at the next world cup.
Alex Gregory, Olympic 2012 gold medallist in the men's four and 2013 World Champion in the eight said: "The race was good, we had a good clean start which is something that we've been trying to practice and improve on. We got into a really good rhythm very early on in the race and we could see side by side with the Germans just how useful that rhythm was, so we were able to move on them much earlier than we thought we could".
Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova added a fifth title in the Princess Royal Challenge Cup for open women's single scullers, leading throughout against Lisa Scheenaard of Holland.
The feat equalled her male counterpart Mahe Drysdale who had earlier won the Diamond Challenge Sculls.
Knapkova said: "I'm very pleased to win. Today it was very tough because of the weather conditions, it was quite windy so it was harder than usual.
"I like competing here at Henley because there's a special atmosphere, there are fans from the start and all the way down the river. It's a really exciting atmosphere and it's completely different from other competitions with the side by side racing and the history of it, it makes it very special".
John Collins and Jonny Walton of Leander Club and Great Britain were thoroughly tested by the South African pacey lightweight crew of James Thompson and John Smith, both London 2012 gold medallists in the lightweight four, in the Double Sculls Challenge final but were the right side of the verdict this year, having missed out so narrowly on the title last year.
Collins said: "It's just such a relief to have done it right this time. It's such a lovely feeling. The winning Leander crews are always greeted with a bottle of champagne and I didn't get that last year. That hurt but this feels fantastic. It's my fourth Henley win and by far my favourite".
Yale caused a big upset in the Ladies' Challenge Plate for student eights by beating the previously all-conquering University of Washington.
Yale, coached by Steve Gladstone, were explosive off the start in this afternoon's final. As the crews passed Remenham Club on the Berkshire bank, the Washington "Huskies" were still over a length down to Yale.
The Huskies are renowned for their mid-race pace but today it was not enough to claw back the Yale lead with the Connecticut-based University winning in 6:34 by a length and three-quarters.
Another surprise came when Westminster School's hopes of closing out the schoolboy 'triple' - of National Schools, Schools' Head and Henley titles - by winning the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup here was spiked by the Bobby Thatcher-coached St Paul's School.
The London duel was won by St Paul's who got a good start, held off any mid-race counter from Westminster and powered over the line.
Arthur Doyle from the St Paul's crew said: "We've had a tough season coming second to Westminster, but it's great to finish off like this at Henley. The guys are the best crew I've ever rowed with, each one brings something to the team so I'm really happy for them and I'm really happy for the club".
Thames Rowing Club generated a race-winning lead by halfway through their final of the Thames Challenge Cup for club eights against RTHC Bayer Leverkusen of Germany and controlled the race from there to win in 6:37.
"We enjoyed that. It was a good race and that win has been a long time coming. We had some good races and good speed this week but you never come to Henley thinking you are definitely going to win it. The standard is really high", said Jon Bale.
Molesey B.C. proved too strong for Tideway Scullers' School in the Wyfold Challenge Cup for club fours.
Jack Beaumont's successful season continues. He was a European bronze medallist in the senior GB quad in May and here picked up his fourth consecutive Prince of Wales title, for intermediate men, with Leander Club.
The University of Washington made the score one-apiece with Yale in the Prince Albert Challenge Cup for student men's coxed fours as they came through a well-fought race to win.
Sir William Borlase's School brought the curtain down on the Regatta with a barnstorming win in the junior men's quadruple sculls against Nottingham R.C.
Elsewhere in this morning's finals session, there were no upsets in the two elite quadruple scull events with the British national crews winning by significant margins, although the world cup winners of a fortnight ago - Angus Groom, Sam Townsend, Graeme Thomas and Peter Lambert - were warned for their steering in beating their German opposition.
Townsend joined the club of five-times title winners here with today's win and said: "We're very chuffed with that, it's always nice to win. It's a fifth win for me in the Queen Mother and if you'd said I was going to do that I wouldn't have believed you."
A tighter race ensued for the British four of Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell, Scott Durant, Alan Sinclair and Tom Ransley - racing as Leander Club and the University of London. They faced the Greek four who were silver medallists to them at the European Championships at the end of May.
Only two-feet separated the two crews at the quarter-mile mark and the British crew needed to dig deep to build a lead through the middle part of the race and then close out the Greeks in the final quarter-mile to win in 6:49.
Canada won the Remenham Challenge Cup for elite women's eights with a powerful performance over the GB national crew. The British boat was in contention for the early part of the race before fading in the second half. Both crews were on the podium at the last world cup.
Veteran Canadian cox, a seven times Olympian, Leslie Thompson-Willie said: "We were pleased with the race. We knew that the British team would be fast off the start and we had a healthy respect for them given what happened at Varese just a little while ago so we were ready for a hard race".
The men's pair final was an all-British squad affair with Matt Langridge and James Foad getting the better of Oliver Cook and Callum McBrierty.
Earlier University of California, Berkeley and Sydney R.C. opened the race programme today in the Visitor's Challenge Cup for intermediate men's fours. The race was well contested in the opening 600m before "Cal Berkeley' began to pull away.
This American crew has struggled with its steering this week and the final proved no exception - so much so that the Sydney crew lodged a protest at the finish saying they had been impeded.
The umpire listened to the Australian crew but decided that the result should stand.
"That was absolutely great. We knew Sydney were good, we knew it would be tight, we knew we had to go all the way and we did it", said Niki van Strang of the American crew.
As expected the students of A.S.R. Nereus Club, from Holland, were comfortable winners of the Temple Challenge Cup eights over the University de Lyon, France.
Bo Wullings from the Dutch crew said: After the performance on Friday we knew we were good but you still have to do it on the day, and we did! It was an amazing race. Lyon are also a fantastic crew so we are delighted to have beaten them today".
Two of the top British crews battled in the junior women's quadruple scull event, the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup. Gloucester were the defending champions and they took the win by a length and three-quarters in 7:35 seconds in a repeat of last year's final between the two crews.
Flo Pickles from the Gloucester crew said: "We had a really solid row which meant we could come back through. Alice is trialling for junior GB squad. I am trialling for U23 and Frances is trialling for the junior GB squad. We have got a big summer ahead of us.
Sydney Rowing Club have sent their biggest fleet of all-time to this Regatta and were rewarded in the first half of finals day with a trophy in the Britannia Challenge Cup for club coxed fours against Thames R.C.
Closing out the Regatta the 2015 Chairman, Sir Steve Redgrave, said: "What a fantastic event we have had. New records and great racing and that's what sport is all about".