Britain's synchronised swimmers came sixth place in their first ever Olympics, meeting the target set by their coach.
The squad performed their Peter Pan-themed free routine, achieving a combined score of 175.4 including Thursday's technical piece.
Jennifer Knobbs said she was pleased with how the ground-breaking team had done.
"It was an incredible performance, all our highlights functioned and we really felt as a team underwater. Hearing the crowd cheering, supporting us the whole way, really gives you the boost to perform that much more."
The eight-strong British team, pinning their medal hopes on Rio, could not compete with the all-conquering Russian team, who won gold having done the same in Beijing. China took silver and Spain bronze.
Katie Skelton was also upbeat about the final result, and she said: "It was a really strong performance, all our highlights worked and we got a really good score.
"We've shown how strong we are and we've improved so much over the last few years. It stands us in good stead for the future."
British synchronised swimming was given a marked boost in 2007, with lottery funding granted after the successful bid for the London Games.
Vicky Lucass said this was vital to the team, who were able to bring in Canadian coach Biz Price.
She said: "It's made a huge difference. We've been able to bring in Biz Price, get the best coaches in the world, bring in their ideas and knowledge. We've centralised as well, training eight hours a day together every day and that's played a big part."
The team are now focused on next year's World Championships and beyond that, the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Price said: "We have a couple of competitions this year, then it's preparing for the World Championships in Barcelona. We just want to keep building up.
"For us the weakest thing is artistic, that's what we really need to step up on in the future. That's what our lowest score was here, for the artistic side, so that's what we really want to work on.
"It's a really young group, the oldest is 24 and the youngest is 18. So now it's onwards to Rio."