New Zealand's golden hour

New Zealand has stolen the limelight at Eton Dorney in one of the country's greatest ever sporting days.

Two rowing gold medals at the London Olympics within in an hour of each other have cemented single sculler Mahe Drysdale and the men's pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray among our historic sporting elite.

Bond says it's the culmination of four years of hard work.

"We've achieved more than we ever expected to in the pair. Got the three or four world titles, world best time in the heat, Olympic gold medal. No one can take away what we've achieved in the last four years and we're just so pleased that we could finish off."

Bond says they had to grapple with going in as unbackable favourites - like a certain rugby team did last year.

"That's the most difficult thing, like the All Blacks, they knew they should win, we knew we should win, but doing it is another story. We're just really pleased we managed to achieve what we were capable of."

Five time world champion Drysdale, who took bronze on the back of illness in Beijing in 2008, is elated.

"Straight afterwards, it was pretty tough kind of realising what I'd done and knowing that 12 years ago I dreamt of doing that, and 12 years later I'm standing on top of the podium so it's pretty sweet."

Mahe Drysdale says he was inspired by the success of Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan.

He took another burst of encouragement from seeing Eric Murray and Hamish Bond blitz the field in their race.

"Lifts you to another level because you wanna go and achieve and to be able to go and join that and hopefully put our sport in... We've lifted New Zealand to 10th on the medal table - it's pretty incredible."

But Drydale's golden day got off to the worst possible start.

He's revealed he was overcome by nerves.

"Never really had nerves like this before. Two hours before the race I was in the toilet throwing up and it's not a nice feeling, it was probably one of the worst mornings of my life.

"I had to go out and perform, and when you've got one race to do it, it's tough and it means a huge amount. I feel like I could finish my career tomorrow and be very, very happy with what I've achieved. Without an Olympic gold medal it would be tough."

Mahe Drysdale's mum didn't see the actual moment her son cliched Olympic gold.

She says her nerves fell to pieces, and she had to look away.

Robyn Owens was watching the single sculls final from the stands at Eton Dorney. She says she was urging him on right up to the line.

"The last 300 metres, I just collapsed, I haven't seen the end of the race, I didn't see Mahe's face. I'm going to have to go and see it on the video."

Robyn Owens says she's thrilled for her son, who's put in years of hard work to achieve his gold medal.

The father-in-law of Eric Murray says his son-in-law's success is the result of sheer hard work and better technology.

Gary Robertson, a 1972 Olympic rowing gold medal winner, says things are different in rowing nowadays.

"They're rowing 200km, 240km a week, they're doing lots of miles," he says.

"They've got speed coaches on the boat and they can monitor the speed they're doing, they have GPS on the boat so they know exactly how fast they're going all the time."

Mr Robertson is proud and pleased with his son-in-law's success.

It's the first time New Zealand has won two gold medals within the space of an hour in 52 years.

The last time such a feat happened for New Zealand was Murray Halberg and Peter Snell winning within an hour of each other at the Rome Games in 1960.

Bond says it's inconceivable to be spoken of at the same time as the great runners.

"Halberg and Snell, I don't think we'd dare to put ourselves in the same breath as that but it just shows what a credit it is to our programme and our athletes who are prepared to turn up each day and work for it."

For New Zealanders in London, it was a day of national pride.

A 300 strong crowd packed Kiwi House to witness the action.

The crowd joined in singing the national anthem - followed by a rousing rendition of "row, row, row your boat".

New Zealand's tally sits at a total of six medals, with three golds and three bronze.

There are more chances to medal again tonight, with Peter Taylor and Storm Uru in the lightweight double sculls, and single sculler Emma Twigg in their respective finals.

Photo: Photosport