At the end of the coxless fours medal ceremony, at which the Princess Royal had just hung gold medals around the necks of the British crew - James Cracknell, Steve Redgrave, Tim Foster, and Matthew Pinsent - Olympic president Juan Antonio Samaranch stepped forward to present Redgrave with a special commemorative Olympic gold pin, suitably marking his outstanding unique achievement of gaining five successive Olympic gold medals.

However, for Redgrave himself, his haul of five golds was furthest thing from his mind.

When asked about it, he said: ''I have no thoughts on it at all. I've spent the last four years working towards an Olympic gold medal in Sydney.

''I've just done that and I think I want to enjoy that. Ask me again in a few years' time.''

When pressed, he added: ''Of course, your first Olympic medal is important, but all are special - you know, you just can't say which is your favourite child.''

While Redgrave's crew has been involved in many tight races over the years, Saturday's final turned into a real heart-stopper, with Italy closing all the way to the line, and the British four winning by just more than a quarter of a second.

However, all the crew members were adamant that they were always going to win.

''I knew we would win from the 250-metre mark,'' Redgrave explained. ''And I'm convinced we could have raised our game if we had needed to.''

''Most of the racing we do does not have passion. I thought today did have passion.

''Some people thought all we had to do was turn up here and win. It is never easy to win an Olympic gold medal.''

Pinsent added: ''Last night, we just laid it down on the line that we could win.

''The rhythm in the middle of the race was important. Once we'd established a lead, it got very painful and very gutsy in the last 500, but I don't think there was an element of doubt in any of us.

''When we got ahead of Italy, we thought: 'Bye bye, off we go,' but all credit to them, they came back at us''.

He also confirmed how tough it had been for the crew. ''When you push on and you've already been flat out for five minutes, you know it's going to hurt in the last 500 metres.

''You can't win an Olympic final easily - you row along thinking that you wished they weren't there.''

There were hundreds of reporters at the four's post-race press conference, and the crew were relaxed enough to play with some of their queries.

Redgrave's medical problems over the past few years have been well documented, and this led to a question asking what was his darkest hour in his Olympic preparation, to which he answered: ''It was pretty dark when we got up this morning.''

He was also reminded of his infamous retiral statement in Atlanta, when he said: ''Anyone who sees me in a boat again has my full permission to shoot me,'' and retorted: ''You'll be getting no famous quotes out of me this time. I've had to live with that for four years.''

He also danced around questions on his retiral, saying, ''my wife Ann has made it clear that if I carry on in the boat, I won't have a marriage,'' and then, pausing for effect, he added ''a choice has got to be made.''

However, Redgrave did have one barb, and that was about the medal ceremony. '' I wasn't all that happy with how the medal ceremony was done. I feel strongly about it. People had paid a lot of money to come here to see us, and it has to be made special for them.

''The first thing you do is congratulate the other medal winners and the people you've raced against. That's a very important part of sport. They took that away. Sport is about the people who come to watch, not just the media.''

Consultant sports psychologist Jack Lamport-Mitchell says Redgrave has a reason to return. ''There is another challenge looming for him. Only one other person has raced at the Olympics at the age of 42 and he might want to match that feat. So I wouldn't bet against him carrying on and going for a sixth gold medal.''