KEY POINTS:
Golden girls Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell last night defied all the critics to win gold in one of the greatest - and closest - races ever in New Zealand Olympic history.
The reigning Olympic champions put a disappointing pre-Games build-up behind them to win by just a hundredth of a second over Germany, capping off a drama-filled "Super Saturday" on the water for New Zealand, which included bronze medals for Mahe Drysdale and men's pair Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater.
New Zealand hearts were on their sleeves as the twins put 18 months of injury woes, hashed results and even form uncertainty behind them to pip Germany in a double sculls photo finish at Shunyi.
In fact, so close was the finish, that the results originally had German double Annekatrin Thiele and Christiane Huth as the winners, but the photo finished showed the New Zealand twins had got up on the last stroke of the race.
After the race, the twins said they were "stoked" at the result, admitting it had come as a little bit of a surprise.
"I wouldn't have picked it a week ago, or even two days ago. We just wanted to have a good race."
Like the millions of spectators, they initially had no idea who had won after crossing the line. "I looked across and the Germans were happy and I thought maybe they'd got it ... and then someone said New Zealand had won," Georgina said.
But if there were a gold medal for bravery it would have had to go to Drysdale, who gave it his all to nearly pull off the most heroic of New Zealand sporting victories.
Despite spending the last 72 hours on an intravenous drip, Drysdale summoned up all his strength and courage to give the performance of his life to narrowly finish behind defending champion Olaf Tufte of Norway and then Czech Ondrei Synek.
For the three-time world champion, it was a case of "bronze and broken" as he was overhauled in the final few hundred metres after it looked like gold was in his sights.
After the race a clearly distressed Drysdale had to be lifted out of his boat by six officials after he collapsed over the finish line. After more than 10 minutes of lying prone, he was lifted to his feet, flanked by NZOC staff and under the eye of Dr Chris Milne, and taken to the medal ceremony.
A stoic Drysdale afterwards refused to use his illness as an excuse.
"It's an Olympic final. This is what I've been preparing for for four years. It's one of those things. You've got to perform on the day. I had a great race and at about 250m the legs gave out on me and I couldn't hold on. All credit to these guys who kept fighting and beat me today.
"I'm not going to make any excuse; I was in as good a shape as I could have been today... I'm proud of my efforts today but obviously I would have liked to have come out with the gold.
"You're always struggling at the end of the race. I'm still not sure about crossing the line though."
Before the games there had been talk of an unprecedented medal haul this year - and the Evers-Swindell twins did not disappoint.
With 500m to row, Germany still had 1.65 seconds on the New Zealand double, but then the black singlets descended on them like an avalanche in the last 100m to grab the win. Great Britain claimed third.
An exuberant Lucy Smith, president of Hamilton Rowing Club, told the Herald on Sunday directly after the race that the club had always had faith the twins would pull off the gold - again.
Leisha Currie, another Hamilton rower who is close to the twins, described the race as "unbelievable, it was awesome".
She said she had watched the girls "on the lake" before they had taken off for Beijing, and their form was undeniable. "I always had faith."
Earlier George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle won the country's second medal - and second bronze - in the men's pair.
Speaking directly after the race, the still-heavily sweating rowers said they had given all they had, but had to give credit to the tenacity of the Australian and Canadian crews who beat them.
"The way they dug deep and kept pushing is a testament to them," Twaddle said.
"Gold was always the aim, and the pair had seen it as achievable, Bridgewater said.
"We didn't train for four years... to try and get third."
In hindsight the pair believed they had let the others get too far ahead before beginning their final push.
GOLDEN DAYS
New Zealand have won two gold medals in a single day four times:
* September 22, 1960 at Rome when middle distance runner Peter Snell won the 800m and Murray Halberg the 5000m.
* October 21, 1964, at Tokyo, Snell in the 1500m, and Flying Dutchman yachties Helmer Pedersen and Earle Wells.
* August 10, 1988, at Los Angeles, canoeist Ian Ferguson in the K1 500m, Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, K2 500m.
* August 11, 1988, at Los Angeles, canoeist Alan Thompson, K1 1000m, and Thompson, Ferguson, MacDonald and Grant Bramwell in the K4 1000m.
* New Zealand claimed its best haul of four medals in one day at Seoul on September 24, 1988, when swimmers Anthony Mosse and Paul Kingsman, single sculler Eric Verdonk and coxless pair Lynley Hannen and Nikki Payne all won bronze.
