Germany completed a stunning double in the water at Rio on Thursday, with their men's and women's teams landing gold medals in rowing.

First, the German men defended their 2012 title, leading from the front to register a time of 6 minutes 6.81 seconds and hold off a late challenge from silver medalists Australia to win, with Estonia claiming bronze.

Philipp Wende, Lauritz Schoof, Karl Schulze and Hans Gruhne took just 6 minutes 6.81 seconds to complete the 2-kilometer course. The first three men were also in the boat when Germany won in London four years ago.

"We wanted to be brave and see what was possible," Schulze told German public broadcaster ZDF after the race. "After 1000 metres I said: 'Guys, keep going, don’t show your body any mercy and be ruthless.'"

Women make it a double

Shortly after that, Ann-Katrin Thiele, Carina Bär, Julia Lier and Lisa Schmidla followed suit, improving on the country's silver medal in the event at the London Games.

The German women left it late to overtake a dominant-looking Polish boat and finished in 6 minutes 49.39 seconds, 0.94 of a second ahead of the Dutch in a thrilling finale to the race. Poland came in third.

The quickfire double in a regatta delayed by adverse weather conditions sees Germany shoot up the medal table to 10th after a slow start to the Games.

mp/pfd (Reuters, dpa)