At the World Rowing Championships, Poznan, Poland
The finally came alive on Sunday, with crowds packing the grandstand and the grass banks of Lake Malta.
And the home team rewarded them, with three Polish crews winning medals, including gold for the Olympic champion quad, who have folk hero status and beat Australia in a thrilling final.
But Great Britain's big party was on Silver Saturday and the day after had a hungover feel to it, with dark sunglasses all round.
There were brave faces from Sophie Hosking and Hester Goodsell, who had come into the event as favourites but knew a revamped Greece would provide a tough challenge, even before the water became rough.
And there were tears from the lightweight women's quad, who had their sights on a first gold medal in 16 years for veteran Jane Hall but who had real trouble in the waves of the final 500m.
But there was a firm smile from GB team manager , buoyed from the events of Saturday, which took him past his pre-event medal target of four with a day to spare, and also upbeat about the development prospects on show on Sunday.
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At the World Rowing Championships, Poznan, Poland
Memories of Great Britain's in Beijing were never far away from the mind on the first day of finals in Poznan but this was a Silver Saturday for GB's rowers on Lake Malta.
And that was good enough for a squad that is in development, three years away from the next Games in London.
, including Great Britain's first ever brace of medals in the single sculls, for Katherine Grainger and Alan Campbell.
The best performance brought victory for the men's four of Matt Langridge, Alex Gregory, Richard Egington and Alex Partridge, who dominated an Australian crew who were far more impressive in Beijing a year ago.
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At the World Rowing Championships, Poznan, Poland
If you're watching the TV coverage on Sunday and someone nearby asks what those little people at the back of the boat do, it's fine to kick off by saying there are eight big men with small cox but there's a lot more to tell.
, a 28-year-old from Bedford, says his role in the Great Britain men's eight is like combining those of jockey, football manager and occasionally mother.
When he needs it, he also has experience of dealing with crisis situations thanks to his afternoon job, working as a banking and financial advisor to the .
"You go out there with a plan but races sometimes don't go to plan so you have to make a value judgement, like a football manager would," he told me.
"I like the jockey analogy more, though, because that makes the rowers the horses. If you whip them too hard they get tired before the finish but if you don't do it enough they won't work hard enough.
"And, like horses, you have to show them who's boss.
"But you sometimes have to be a mum, aware of how people are feeling. You have to be critical and know when they're being lazy but you can't hit someone all the time."
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At the World Rowing Championships, Poznan, Poland
If Sophie Hosking and Hester Goodsell continue their impressive form this season and take gold on Sunday, the first thing they will be breaking open is the ice-cream.
The duo make up the women's lightweight double scull - one of Great Britain's best chances of gold after two international victories already this year - but racing at lightweight means they have to think about more than just training hard in the lead-up to a regatta.
Two hours before each of their races this week, they have to weigh in at no more than 59kg each, with a crew average of 57kg - 8st 9lb. That means no chocolate for Hester, no beer for Sophie and no ice-cream for either of them.
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At the World Rowing Championships, Poznan, Poland.
Alan Campbell grew up near the near Coleraine in Northern Ireland. So it's appropriate he now competes in an event for huge bodies, huge talents and huge egos, as Great Britain's representative in the men's single sculls.
Most of rowing is about taking individuals and making them work together as one collective, efficient whole. This event is the one big exception, though, and on Lake Malta in Poznan, Poland on Thursday I got my first look for five months at all the giants rumbling together, in the World Championships semi-finals.
Chief giant is 33-year-old Olaf Tufte, a Norwegian farmer who has . When you're used to meeting rowers, their height has less of an impact, and they're all pretty wide but Tufte has a third dimension - he is deep too. He has a chest like a hot water tank.
Campbell, 26, was fifth in Beijing after a harrowing few months that saw the infection from an abscess in a tooth travel to his knee, leaving him requiring surgery and out of action for five weeks, with the muscles in one leg so wasted it was half the size of the other.
Then there is Mahe Drysdale, who won the World Championships in three successive years but suffered a stomach virus at the Beijing Olympics and collapsed over the finish. But only after he had won a bronze medal.
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I'm Martin Gough and I cover all Olympic sports but in particular rowing, which I've been a fan of since the age of three, when I watched on TV as Cambridge sank in the Boat Race. .
