Historic First Gold for Rowers
1st August 2012Helen Glover and Heather Stanning opened Team GB's gold medal count in the women's pair at Eton-Dorney today and with that victory wrote themselves into the history books as Britain's first female Olympic gold medallists in the sport.
Their win was also Team GB's first of its home Games.
"I think I was slightly aware but it was not until we crossed the line that I realise just how big the expectations were" said Glover.
"I couldn't hear what Helen was saying, I couldn't see the bubble line and all I could hear was the crowd cheering. It was such fantastic support. We're delighted, it's brilliant". said Stanning.
"Hopefully it' s a sign of things to come across Team GB. Let's go for it, let's make it our Games", said Glover. "I'd also like to think this will inspire more people to be active and enjoy sport".
The British men's eight also took a medal today - a bronze - after a gutsy row in which they took the race to the unbeaten Germans in the first half but did not have enough to hold on to the line, leaving Canada to take silver from a fast finish.
"We may have sacrificed a silver but we gave it our all", said Matt Langridge from the eight.
The British women's quadruple scull were desperately unlikely to catch a crab within the first 30 strokes and were always out of contention from there.
Earlier the equivalent men's boat qualified for the final on Friday in third place, again making history as the first GB boat in this category to qualify for an Olympic final.
Alan Campbell is safely through to the final of the men's single scull with a second-placed semi-final finish today and the new, young GB men's pair of Will Satch and George Nash led from the front to win their semi-final. The red-heads were in red hot form today and have laid down a marker for the final.