This weekend, the Eton Dorney rowing course will host the second of this season's World Cups – its first international action since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic events. Pre-sale tickets have sold out for tomorrow and Sunday (June 23), although there are still some available for Saturday (June 22). And you can still get a quota of tickets if you turn up on the day.

Coming almost a year after the epic competitions that took place on the waters of Eton College's purpose-built rowing lake, this latest gathering of the sport's great and good for what is officially entitled the Samsung Rowing World Cup will inevitably evoke memories of a summer already hazed into gold in the minds of those who witnessed it.

As one fortunate enough to have reported on three of the four Olympic finals days, I recall vividly the ecstasy of the gold medallists in the women's pair, Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, after they had delivered not just the first British gold of the Olympic regatta but the first British gold of the Games - and indeed the first Olympic rowing gold ever earned by British women. As they collapsed into each other just past the finishing line, the air a ferment of approbation, it was as if their achievements were having a concussive effect.

Britain's Zac Purchase (left) and Mark Hunter, shattered in the wake of their narrow failure to defend the Olympic lightweight double sculls title

I recall the agony - truly - of the defending men's lightweight sculls champions, Britain's Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter, after they had seen another gold turn to silver in the final few metres as the Danish pairing of Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist Hansen came through. Here was rowing at maximum intensity - and brutality. It is hard to think of two sportsmen ever appearing more shattered by a defeat, and the physical cost of the Britons' effort was painfully obvious as Sir Steve Redgrave and his wife Ann, GB Rowing's medical officer, had to lift Hunter out of the boat and assist his faltering steps away from the jetty.

Other memories crowd in: the glorious progress of New Zealand's peerless pair, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond; the deep joy of Katherine Grainger in securing Olympic gold after three successive silvers, victorious in the double sculls with Anna Watkins; Drew Ginn, Australia's triple Olympic champion, reduced briefly to tears at the press conference after defeat by Britain's coxless four, where he indicated that his glorious competitive career had come to an end, an emotion which earned palpable respect from each of the seven other rowers alongside him.

Katherine Grainger (left) shows the joy of winning Olympic gold after three successive silvers as she stands on the podium with Anna Watkins

And amidst all these images, I will recall a sound - that of the National Anthem being sung in the steep, packed stands by the finish after each of the four British victories - sung with the precision of a church choir.

Four of those punctiliously celebrated British champions will be back on the water at Eton Dorney - Glover is in the lightweight double with Polly Swann as Stanning takes a year out of competition, while Andy Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed, whose thwarted pairs ambitions were redirected to a golden end in the four, compete alongside their London 2012 crewmate Alex Gregory in a new eight.

At least one other golden Brit will be at the course over the weekend - but for Sophie Hosking, whose triumph with Kat Copeland in the lightweight double scull added Britain's fourth and final gold of the regatta, the responsibilities will be those of an ambassador for the event rather than a competitor.

Hosking returned to Eton Dorney earlier this week for the first time since that summer of success in order to announce her retirement from the sport at the age of 27.

"Obviously the place felt very different from the way it was when during the Olympics," she told insidethegames. "But being around the boathouse brought back some of the emotions I was feeling around that time, and the feelings I had when Cat and I were making our final preparations before racing.

"We hadn't watched any of the previous finals. We were focusing on the job we had to do at the Olympics, although obviously we were wishing all of our teammates the best when it came to their races. We were training on the course twice a day when the racing was over.

"Of course it was really encouraging to see people we had been training with winning gold. We did all our training pieces against the Katherine and Anna. But we still had to go out there and perform in our competition.

"I think Kat and I felt that by the time we got into our boat for the Olympics everything possible had been done, all the preparations had been made, and we felt very confident. For us it was about staying calm and trying to savour those moments.

"Before the racing we were in the British team tent and we both quite quiet in the way we made ourselves ready to compete.

"Although I have had more experience of competing than Kat, I didn't need to calm her down. We had both competed as individuals in the sculls, which means you have to take complete ownership of your preparations for a race.

Sophie Hosking (right) and Kat Copeland acknowledge the acclaim at Eton Dorney after winning Olympic gold in the women's lightweight double scull

"The atmosphere while we were racing was phenomenal, and it was the same throughout the Olympic regatta. And after we had won it was marvellous to be able to celebrate it with the friends and family who were there.

"I have very proud memories of Eton Dorney, and it will always be a special place for me."

Those memories go back all the way to the course's first big international regatta, the 2006 World Championships, where Hosking made her debut and won bronze in the lightweight quadruple scull. She was in the quad which took silver a year later in Munich before switching to the double sculls and taking further bronzes in 2009 and 2011.

Hosking, whose father, David, won a gold medal as part of Britain's lightweight men's eight at the 1980 World Championships, believes this latest high profile rowing event in Britain has come at a vital time for the sport's development.

Sophie Hosking and Kat Copeland enjoy the Olympic and Paralympic parade through London in September

"The World Cup is really important in terms of building on the popularity and success of the sport at the Olympics," she said. "There are some new crews and combinations taking part across the board, but it will be important for home crews to be as successful as possible across as many events as possible.

"While London 2012 may have been the first Games where British women won gold medals, I think that performance had been building for years. In Beijing the quadruple and double sculls narrowly missed gold, and on the basis of results in the seasons leading up to London 2012, those results were bound to happen.

"I think the level of success the British team achieved in London has made a great impact in terms of encouraging people to take up the sport, and that was one of the best things about it."

It would be nice to think that this weekend's activities will continue to stimulate what is one of the most vital legacies of the London 2012 Games.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. To follow him on Twitter click here.