By Naomi and Dominique, Gumley House Convent School in Isleworth Olympic School Reporters, Beijing

David has been Senior Team Manager for the past four Olympic Games

We were there to watch the rowing heats as the British team began their triumphant progress towards a crop of medals: 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze.

We were very loud and energetic as we cheered on the British rowers.

Dominique and I were fortunate enough to meet, and interview, the team manager of the GB rowing team David Tanner OBE.

How do you feel about the atmosphere in Beijing?

The atmosphere in Beijing is electric. We watched the opening ceremony on TV. It really set the whole thing going. The organisers in Beijing made a fantastic effort to make it a thrilling event.

Have you picked up any Chinese whilst you've been out here?

Apart from "Ni hao" (hello), not very much, to be honest. People here are trying to learn English, and they like to practise "Good morning" and "You're welcome", so we've been teaching them a little bit.

Considering that the climate is very different out here, how do you think the smog will affect the team's performance?

I have very strong views on that and my answer is that it won't affect it at all because we're actually between the Gobi Desert and the hills of northern China, Mongolia, so we're in a semi-tropical zone. What you see here is like being in Singapore or somewhere similar. Occasionally you will get a little pollution, but actually, it doesn't affect us at all.

To give you a longer answer, we had a test event last year - every venue does - and we brought our junior rowing team here. We had a physiologist with them and tested it all out at this time of the year and there were absolutely no issues at all.

I think our gold medallists in the cycling at 124km would have had a problem, if anyone was going to have one, so in my book, the pollution is not a problem. The humidity is challenging but you can deal with that, and the rain is like home.

What did you think about the opening ceremony and do you think London will be able to reach the high standards in 2012?

I thought that it was a fantastic opening ceremony. London has to be the cultural capital of the world and I think we should do something that is really good, British and very high level.

As a continuous manager of the team, do you think that they have made progress throughout the years?

Yes definitely. We've had a tremendous improvement particularly in the last two years. We won seven medals at our world championship last year, in different classes, and that was the most we've ever won.

Have you got high hopes for Britain to continue to win gold and silver medals?

Absolutely. We've won a gold medal in rowing - the ONLY sport to have won a gold medal in all of the last six games. In 1996, Great Britain only won one gold medal and that was in rowing, so nobody can beat that.

David used to be the head of a school in West London

I think Redgrave winning his fifth gold in Sydney was the highlight. It was also a fantastic regatta because we had two other big firsts.

One was our first ever women's Olympic medal in the quadruple scull with Katharine Grainger. Also our men's eight won a gold medal in the very last event of the rowing, so a tremendous weekend for us, but Redgrave started it off.

And, after rowing, which is your favourite Olympic event and why?

That's a good question. I'll have to think about that one.

I'd probably say the track. If I've got a choice, I would go and watch that, because it's so varied; from running to jumping to everything else. You can really see people doing a lot of different things so that would be my way of enjoying myself if I've got nothing to do.

But honestly, I enjoy almost anything. I went to the canoe slalom, the other day, and that's fascinating. I never see that kind of thing normally.

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