THERE should be a big party in Shepherds Bush when Olympic rower Stephen Rowbotham makes it home on Monday after playing his part in Team GB's glorious Beijing Games.
The 26-year-old, who hails from Wiltshire but now lives in west London, was one of the success stories on Super Saturday when GB athletes claimed nine medals - four of them gold.
And although most of the glory went to the coxless fours who upheld the Pinsent-Red grave legacy by landing gold, Rowbotham's bronze in the double sculls with partner Matt Wells was every bit as noteworthy.
Rowbotham and Wells, of the Leander Club in Henley, missed out on silver by 0.05 seconds as Estonia overtook them at the last. Australia took gold in the race.
It is a measure of the new found ambitions in Team GB that Rowbotham's first reaction was one of slight frustration rather than elation.
"It was very disappointing not to get the gold, extremely disappointing not to get the silver, but you never pass up on an Olympic medal," he said.
"I'm just delighted."
Rowbotham - a former junior county tennis player - has yet to decide whether he will compete again in 2012 when the Games come to London. He will have to decide whether to accept the punishing full-time schedule that includes consuming 6,000 calories a day and feed his 6ft 5in, 96 kilo frame.
Robert Treharne Jones of the Leander club told the Gazette: "He will take a month off for a well-earned rest before deciding. But at 30, he will still be at a good age to compete.
"One of the boys in the Estonian crew was 42."
The triumphant coxless fours included Chiswick rowers Peter Reed and Andy Hodge - who both rowed for Oxford in the Boat Race.
The pair will never forget the dramatic finale in which they pulled ahead of the Australian quartet in the final 250m.
Hodge, whose shock of blond hair made him the instantly recognisable lead rower said: "I don't know where the last 250m came from. I was in so much pain. I've never been in that pain in my entire life."
Reed said: "I'm so relieved and happy. It was not a gimme. We were on the ropes and we put together the best finish we've ever had."
The west London success stories maintain a tradition of Olympians with strong connections to the region winning medals at the Games.
In 2000, former Northolt Boxing Club super heavyweight Audley Harrison became one of the stars of the Sydney games for team GB with a gold medal which propelled him towards a professional career.
And in 2004, Kelly Holmes - who used to turn out for Ealing Southall & Middlesex Athletic Club - stormed to a magnificent 800m-1500m double in Athens.
