Germany's rowers held off a spirited challenge from Britain to take Olympic gold in a thrilling men's eight final on Wednesday.
Germany, unbeaten since 2008, went out fast but were overtaken by the British on half way, only to step up a gear in the last 500 meters and cross the line first in five minutes, 48.75 seconds.
"I can't believe that," said German oarsman Filip Adamski. "Four years we wait and now it's happened, I can't imagine what this means."
Adamski said his team had to react to a strong headwind that hampered progress.
"Very, very tough - the wind - the whole season we have had tailwinds and now the opposite," the Polish-born athlete said.
"It was a new situation for us, we have a tactic, a strategy, every time the same and now we had to change that. We had to react to this situation."
Team GB, the silver medalists in Beijing, was beaten to the silver after a late charge from defending champions Canada, who were over a second back.
The British were 1.2 seconds further adrift, the bronze coming as a crushing blow to some of the crew.
"We came here to win. I never thought I would say that I wouldn't be happy with an Olympic medal, but I'm not," said James Foad, 25.
"We row as such a good team and we expect to win, that's what we train to do."
