Oxford University student Stan Louloudis said Great Britain’s men’s eight were left gutted by only winning a bronze medal at Eton Dorney on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old, who stroked the British boat, looked crestfallen as he stepped off the water, despite achieving a podium place.

Britain, who also featured former Oxford Brookes student and current Leander Club member Alex Partridge, led briefly before finishing third behind Germany and Canada.

The crew, who also included Leander trio Richard Egington, Matthew Langridge and cox Phelan Hill, were neck and neck with Germany for the first half of their race, but couldn’t quite maintain their gold medal challenge, taking bronze in 5mins 51.18secs.

It took Leander past 100 Olympic medals.

“We went for the win,” said Louloudis, who overcame a back injury to feature at the Games.

“If we had wanted to get a silver medal, we would have got a silver medal.

“We went for gold and in that last 250m my legs had nothing left.

“I was giving everything and hoping the others had enough to carry me over.

“I had given everything. I didn’t know where we were in the race. I was doing everything I could until I heard the beep for the finish.

“I wasn’t looking at any other boats. I think there was one update with about 750m to go that we were a seat up on the Germans and we should just give everything.”

Louloudis was part of Oxford’s victorious Boat Race crew in 2011, but took a year out from his studies to focus on the Olympics.

Although frustrated with bronze, he knew he had given it his all.

“There are situations where you find your limit, and I found mine,”he added. “Unfortunately it just came a little bit early.

“It is nice to go away knowing you have no regrets, but it’s not gold. It is not very much consolation when we haven’t got a gold medal.

“I have more Olympics to come, but there are nine guys in this crew and that is not the case for everyone. I wanted to do it for them as much as anyone.”