Olympics: Ireland's Ger Owens and Philip Lawton today bowed out of the Olympic Games after finishing 16th overall in the 470 Class at Qingdao, while the lightweight fours lost Gearóid Towey to illness before finishing fourth in the 'B' final at Shunyi.
The Dun Laoghaire duo finished 15th, 13th and 24th in the last three races of the 10-race regatta to drop back from 14th position.
In the rowing, Towey was replaced by Richard Coakley but he, Paul Griffin (Stroke), Richard Archibald and Cathal Moynihan (Bow) could only manage a time of six minutes 6.02 seconds, nearly three off the pace set by Italy.
China were second and Australia took third.
A nasty illness has been circulating around the regatta all week and Germany's lightweight men's four had to withdraw from yesterday's semi-final after three crew-members were affected.
The German men's four, who compete in the final against Great Britain later today, have had to reshuffle their crew today after Marco Neumann withdrew through illness.
And the Canadian lightweight men's double sculls have also been forced into a late change for today's 'B' final.
Elsewhere, New Zealand's lightweight men's double sculls have failed in their protest that their performance in yesterday's semi-final was affected by the presence of weed in their lane.
The Board of the Jury found no evidence and and rejected the protest. The Kiwi boat failed to qualify for Sunday's 'A' final after finishing fourth.
Britain's coxless four rowers, meanwhile, emulated Olympic greats Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent when they struck gold in the coxless four.
The crew, led by Steve Williams and including Tom James, Peter Reed and Andy Triggs-Hodge, put in a dramatic surge to haul back Australia and make it three golds in a row at the Olympics for Britain's flagship boat.
It means Williams is now a double Olympic champion after also winning gold in Athens.
The victory sealed a triumphant haul of medals for Britain which saw Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington conjure up a storming surge to take the bronze in a dramatic finish to the women's doubles sculls.
Then Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham joined in the celebrations when they too came third in the men's double sculls.
Alan Campbell, whose preparations were disrupted two months ago when he required surgery for a knee infection, had earlier come fifth in the men's singles sculls.
The 25-year-old from Coleraine tired in the second half of the race in which Norway's Olaf Tufte retained his Olympic title, with Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic second and New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale taking the bronze.
Campbell, from Coleraine, is renowned for his quick start and was leading by a quarter of a second at the 500m mark, but by half-way Tufte had hauled him in with a half-second advantage and Campbell finished in a time of 7.04.47, almost five seconds behind the winner.