ZAC Purchase roared home to Olympic glory in China and admitted: “This medal weighs a ton!”

The former King’s School Worcester pupil went in as favourite for the lightweight doubles with Mark Hunter after taking the World Cup crown.

Although it was their 13th race after 12 straight wins, they didn’t need any luck as superb sculling saw them hold on to win by a third-of-a-length from the fast-finishing Greeks.

Purchase admitted: “I can hardly lift the medal up. I feel so tired after making weight and racing so hard, but it just feels incredible to have an Olympic gold round your neck.

“The only thing I remember shouting in the race was ‘Gold!’ with 400 metres to go.

“It seemed like the right thing to get the last 30 strokes out — we were leading, the race was in our grasp, we just had to keep our composure and drive for the line. But the last 10 strokes seemed a lot further than normal.

“I’m going to chill out and spend some time banging that medal on the wall. I’ll probably take a few months to bang that nail in, until next Christmas or beyond, because it’s not going to sink in for ages — that I’m an Olympic champion.”

“It feels unbelievable. You train for it, prepare for it, put in the hard work and the night before you're nervous. You’ve done everything you can, but is it enough to cross that line first? And that’s at the end of 18 months of really hard work, specifically for these six minutes.

“Well it was enough! And winning gold — nothing can prepare you for it and for the incredible sensation of doing what you set out to do.

“Winning a first Olympic title is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And I hope it’s not the last, fingers crossed.”

Italy’s Marcello Liani and Elia Luini led Great Britain by four feet through the 500m mark, but the Brits hit the front at 600m and inched up on the field.

At halfway, the lead was a third of a length from Greece’s Vasileios Polymeros and Dimitrios Mougios, with the world champion Danes Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist up to third and looking menacing.

But GB made their move in the third quarter to go through 1500m a length up on the field and with gold in their grasp if they could keep their length and rhythm.

Although the Greeks mounted a last 200m burst for the line, no-one was going to catch the Brits as they came home for golden glory in six minutes 10.99 seconds. “We had a really good start, and settled into a really strong rhythm. We had a really high cruising speed and that’s what got us through the middle of the race,” added world singles record holder Purchase.

“We were really confident in our ability to keep moving, that’s what won us the race, being really confident in holding that high speed for the longest time we could.

“The Greeks are really good and always keep us on our toes. They had a brilliant finish, but it was just a case in the last 200m of staying on top and making sure we stayed out as far as we we could. We both wanted to win, but we just had enough in hand to stay out.”

And the Olympic champion revealed he was shaking inside after they crossed the line and he punched the air in joy.

“There was a massive burst of adrenaline crossing that line. It’s keeping me upright at the moment, but I’ll be on my knees later. I was shaking inside and on the podium.

“I’m sure the bar in the hotel will take a hit, but after making weight I don’t think it will take much for me to be flat on my back”

“We came together 18 months ago and we’re a relatively new unit, and we’ve gone and won gold, the new kids on the block. It feels fantastic, it’s priceless, it’s beyond value.

“You don’t know you’re going to do it until that very last stroke and it feels amazing.”