As Miriam Batten stepped down from the winners' podium wearing her silver medal, her sister and team-mate Guin, gave her a hug.

As she pulled her elder sister close, Guin whispered: "This is for mum."

The Batten sisters made British Olympic history at the Sydney Games when they and their team-mates Gillian Lindsay and Katherine Grainger won silver in the women's quadruple sculls.

The Olympic medal was the first ever to be won by a British women's rowing team.

But Miriam, 35, and Guin, 33, had set themselves a far more important goal than entering the record books.

They were rowing for the memory of their mother, Madella, who died of cancer in February 1998.

Miriam said: "I first heard that my mum was dying when I phoned my dad from Atlanta airport after arriving for the last Olympics.

"I knew she had a lump on her neck and had had tests but it was still a shock.

"It was a testing time made worse because the whole team did so badly."

Miriam returned from Atlanta depressed.

Lack of funding had left her in debt and her mum was becoming weaker.

She and her sister, who grew up in Ditchling, tried to fit their training around visits to Madella in hospital near Haywards Heath.

They often brought their boats down to Sussex to train on a reservoir in Ardingly.

Miriam said: "We would spend a couple of hours training, visit mum and then do a few more hours' training.

"We did whatever we could to be close to her."

The devoted mum spent hours on the road travelling Europe in a camper van with her husband Chris, 63, to watch their daughters row.

Miriam said: "They used to drive for miles to see us compete in regattas and competitions.

"They even travelled all the way to Barcelona to watch me compete in the Olympics."

But Madella, who had worked at St Giles College, Brighton, never saw her daughters win an Olympic medal.

She died aged 60 - more than two years before the start of the Sydney Games.

Miriam said: "I knew Australia would be my last chance to get one for her and for me because I would have to retire afterwards."

Only six weeks before the start of the competition, crew changes teamed her up with her sister Guin for the first time.

The team quickly pulled together and set their sights on a bronze medal in the women's quadruple sculls. Miriam said: "Most teams have at least a year together before they compete but we had so little time.

"I think it helped that Guin and I were together and spurred each other on."

The day before the final, the sisters watched rower Steve Redgrave win his fifth successive Olympic gold medal.

Both were moved as they watched the champion celebrate.

Miriam said: "I looked over and saw Guin had a tear in her eye but we had to remain focused for our race.

The next day - cheered on by dad Chris, brother Stephen and Miriam's husband, Dave Luke, they surpassed even their own high expectations.

A photo finish proved the British team pipped the Russians to second place by one hundredth of a second.

Miriam said: "I knew we had got it when the officials showed the Russians the results first and they didn't cheer.

"It was an amazing but was made even better because I was in a boat with Guin.

"We argue as all sisters do but we love each other and are very close.

"My family was there and my mum was there in spirit."

Few who knew Miriam as a child, could have predicted her rise to sporting excellence.

She was keen - but talentless - in most games offered at St Mary's Hall School in Brighton.

She said: "I was always enthusiastic but was pretty useless and was always the last one to be picked for teams.

"Our family was extremely competitive but not at all sporty."

It was not until she attended Southampton University that her talent for rowing emerged.

She said: "I wanted to do sailing but the captain put his girlfriend in the team instead of me. I wanted to do something involving boats so ended up rowing instead."

By 1991 she had won her first World Championship medal.

A year later Guin, now the team's most experienced sculler, joined Miriam's London rowing club.

In Sydney, after years of being denied Olympic glory, the sisters finally struck silver.

Miriam, who lives in Henley-on-Thames with Dave, plans to return to her job in the computing department of Debenhams in November.

She said: "I will retire from rowing now because I want to have a family and it is difficult to fit training around having children.

"It is perfect way to end my Olympic career."

Guin has decided to stay with their brother Stephen who lives in Sydney until the end of November.

Her dad has also stayed for a honeymoon with his fiancee Mary Mackenzie - mum of Olympic rower Kate.

In December, the family will be united again when Chris, well- known in Hove because of his work with the YMCA, will marry Mary the day before Christmas Eve.

Stephen will fly over from Australia to be his dad's best man.

Although Miriam's family has no past links with rowing, her in-laws have.

She met husband Dave, a former international rower, at a competition in Tasmania, Australia in 1990.