New Zealand rowers had their most successful campaign to date at the 2012 Summer Olympics in Great Britain. Eleven boats with 26 rowers had qualified, and three gold and two bronze medals were won. The men won gold in the single sculls, double sculls, and pair, and bronze in the lightweight double sculls. The women won bronze in the pair. Hamish Bond later wrote that he watched Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan in their final, and with 500 m to go, they were 3.5 sec down on the leaders and in fourth place; whilst they were the reigning world champions and had dominated the qualifying races, Bond was convinced that they had no chance of winning their final. But they had the most impressive sprint and won by half a length. It gave Bond confidence that he could win his race, too, and so he did (with Eric Murray) the following day.