Four final Friday finished fielding fourths and fifths

Ironically on the least windy day the South African crews performed their worst, and it was potentially the lack of wind that worked against the crews.

"We performed well in the windy conditions as we had prepared well for that," said team coach Roger Barrow who went on to explain the logic. 

"The powerful crews tend to battle with technique in the rough conditions, but in calm smooth conditions they come into their own." 

This was certainly not intended to depreciate the wins and performances of the other crews but a real consideration in assessing the performances. 

Throughout the week the crews had generally met expectations as they worked their way to the finals. 

In particular the Men's Fours, a crew and boat that had literally been put together in the last year and were last minute qualifiers, who were expected to rank 11th or 12th overall, but finished fourth.

The crew of David Hunt Jonty Smith, Vincent Breet and Jake Green failed to make the automatic qualification in their heat, but won the repechage to enter the Semi, then pulled their way through to the final. 

The race was dominated by the Great Britain who were keeping Australia at bay in second for the entire race, with the other crews in an early battle, but South Africa moved into third at 500m and held that with Italy and Netherlands initially jostling for fourth.

As the distance unfolded, the Netherlands faded and Italy remained in search of the Bronze. The real attack came just after 1500 where there was a visible step up in stroke rate by the Italians who edged ahead with less than 100m remaining.

It may have been fourth, the very worst position in worldwide sport, but in many ways it should be considered a win by this four who far exceeded expectations. 

"We knew before the race we had the speed to get this medal; we said we would go early and go with purpose. If someone was going to take it away from us they would have to take it from our dead hands," said David Hunt "we did just that, but Italy showed their class and why they were world champions. They were patient and then went hard at the end, we just couldn't hold them."    

Jonty Smith, who only came into the sport after the 2012 Olympics, underlines the exceptional level of the fours performance. 

"It's incredible that the system can take a person like me and in four years fast track me to this level, in a boat that was only put together this year and take us to fourth in the world," said Smith. "It is a testament to the coaches and support systems that are in place. "

The despondency amongst the crews was evident not only over the line, but in their resistance to interviews. The drop in squad spirit after the high of a relatively unexpected Silver by the men's pairs on Thursday had hit home hard.

The Men's double scull of James Thompson and John Smith were tipped for medal based on their world championship performance, but lay in fourth throughout their race finishing behind France, Norway, and a strong Ireland crew. 

Although finishing fifth, the women's double scull and pairs, were at least saved the haunt of fourth the position that gets everyone questioning 'what if' - the dreaded despondency and doubt for any sportsman or women.  

Kirsten McCann and Ursula Grobler went out hard passing 500m in second to Canada, momentarily took the lead at half way, were over-hauled by Netherlands and ran out of steam dropping from second to fifth as Canada China and New Zealand had better paced races that took them through to the finish.  They ended up 6.53 seconds off the pace and almost 5 seconds out of the medals.

Lee-Ann Persee and Kate Christowitz were never in contention, getting through the first quarter in fourth then dropping to fifth in a race won by Great Britain, with New Zealand and Denmark taking silver and bronze. 

Certainly a disappointment, but it is the pinnacle of the competition each four years, and five out of five boats made finals, the men's pairs, of Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling won a silver medal, and two crews were Fifth best in the World, two crews were Fourth best in the world, and the men's four were fourth after four race to get to the final. No wonder there was so much F ing on Thursday - they really did flipping well.