GB's lightweight gold

The pair pumped the air as they went over the finish line and Purchase stood up to wave to fans after holding off a fast finishing Greek crew of Dimitrios Mougios and Vasileios Polymeros who took silver.

The double world champions from Denmark Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist took bronze, just ahead of Italy.

Britain had started the event as slight favourites after winning all three of this year's World Cup regattas and continued their strong form into the early rounds of the Olympic regatta, winning their heat and semi-final.

They became the first British crew to win the lightweight doubles in the Olympics.

"The last 200m were just a case of 'keep going'. In October last year we said we wanted to come here and win, and now we have. The last 10 years have come down to six minutes of hell, but it's all worth it," Purchase said.

"We've put in hours and hours and hours of training to get to where we are now, it's not just the stuff on the water. Today you can see the results of 18 months' really hard work."

Britain added a silver medal in the blue riband men's eight as Canada took gold to earn redemption for their Athens fiasco and the United States finished with bronze.

Canada finished fifth in 2004 despite entering as double world champions and favourites, and their coach, Mike Spracklen, said that many of the crew had returned to Beijing to make up for that result.

In a thrilling finale to the Olympic regatta, Canada flew off the start and had a lead of a canvas in the early stages of the race and had almost a length lead by half way.

Britain, who won the event in Sydney, closed in on the leaders in the latter stages of the race but left it too late.

They took silver and Athens champions the United States took third.

The Canadian crew punched the air in delight while their cox threw himself into the arms of the strokeman sat opposite him.

Australia, who had six-times Olympian James Tomkins on board, finished outside the medals.

Britain's women's quadruple scull team added a silver medal as team GB finished the Olympic rowing competition with two gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals to lead the table.

The British quartet of Annie Vernon, Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton and Katherine Grainger were pipped China at the last.

"It is going to be hard coming to terms with another silver," said Grainger, who won silver in the women's quad scull in Sydney 2000 and in the women's pair at Athens 2004. "We always said that silver wouldn't be good enough for us."

"I am so proud to race with this crew, we felt so strong in the last 500 but we just weren't able to latch it together. Most of the race we were the best crew, but not at the end."

Chinese rowers suffered repeated disappointment through eight days of racing, but came roaring back in the last half of the country's last race to claim their first rowing gold.

After netting a lone silver the day before and two fifth place finishes earlier in the day, Tang Bin, Jin Ziwei, Xi Aihua and Zhang Yangyang carried the hopes of their team and country on their sturdy shoulders.

"In the Olympics you have to keep struggling, there is no rule that says who should win," Jin said.

After the first 1,000 metres, the crowd came alive and the Chinese seemed to pick up the pace down the stretch, beating the British team by more than a second and a half.

"I feel great, everything is great!" Jin shouted after the victory.

The country and team had high expectations after years of intensive preparation and huge expense for the home Olympics.

The four Chinese women helped take some of the sting away for the rest of the team.

"Now we see our preparations were not enough," said Xu Dongxiang, a member of the fifth place women's double scull team.

"I haven't really thought much about London."

The men's double scull team also finished fifth on Sunday.

Both double scull teams had hopes of medals, but fell behind early and faded badly.

The Chinese rowers have developed rapidly after recruiting experienced foreign coaches and failing to win any medals in Athens four years ago.

"We didn't set any goals for this race, we just wanted to compete to the best of our ability," said Zhang Guolin, half of the men's double scull team.

But with the victory by his team mates, the bar for the unit will undoubtedly be set higher for the London Games in 2012.

Denmark flew off the start to win the men's lightweight four and defend their Athens title, holding off Poland in a fast finish.

Denmark had entered the regatta as slight favourites and got off to a flying start to take a length lead by halfway.

Poland, who had moved up through the field during the race, took the silver over Canada while world champions Britain finished out of the medals.

Richard Chambers, James Lindsay-Fynn, Paul Mattick and James Clarke were third with 500m to go but faded and finished fifth.

Kirsten van der Kolk and Marit van Eupen of the Netherlands recovered from a slow start to win the women's lightweight double scull, wearing their lucky gold shoes.

Germany fired off the start and led for the first half before fading as the Dutch moved through the field.

The Dutch, who wear gold shoes attached to the base of their boat, were roared on by a huge crowd of orange-clad fans.

Two later broke through security to swim out to congratulate them.

Grinning with relief, the Dutch pair told reporters they had been surprised to win so easily.

"Right at the start Kirsten reminded me they were in the boat," said van Eupen of the shoes. "It was exactly what we wanted, exactly what we planned. We just didn't plan it would be this easy."

Van der Kolk said they had done exactly what was required.

"We know we are the best, and if you are the best, then it will happen," she said. "We did what we planned to do after a lot of years training."

Finland's Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen took silver in a fast finish while Canada's Melanie Kok and Tracy Cameron took bronze in a photo finish over Germany.

China, who had been tipped for a medal, finished behind the main field.

The United States stormed to victory in the women's eight, finally getting the better of the dominant Romanians in a thrilling final.

The Romanians won the event in Athens and in Sydney but the U.S. had entered the regatta as double world champions and looked strong throughout the earlier rounds.

They flew off the start and settled with their long and efficient style to take a half a length lead by half way which they held on to until the end.

The U.S. victory denied Romania's Georgeta Andrunache her sixth Olympic gold medal and the title of the most prolific Olympic rower of all time.

Romania finished third in a photo finish behind the Netherlands, while the U.S. crew punched the air in delight.

Poland lead all the way to take the gold medal in the men's quadruple sculls.

Italy take silver with France, who finish fast to overtake Australia, claiming the bronze.