Ireland picked up its first Olympic rowing medal, meanwhile, with a silver for brothers Gary O’Donovan and Paul O’Donovan in the lightweight men’s double sculls. However, the British boat had a task on their hands if they were going to battle for gold with world champions the United States of America, who themselves finished another three seconds ahead of Britain in qualifying. “With the cancellations for a few days and not knowing how fast we were going to be on the day”.
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For Reed and Andrew T Hodge, another member of the indomitable men’s four at the previous two Games, this was a third straight Olympic gold.
The United States won gold in six minutes 01.49 seconds while Britain was second in 6:03.98 and Romania took bronze in 6:04.10.
Great Britain also repeated as Olympic champions in the women’s pair.
On the other hand, Britain became the first NOC to win this event five times in a row, breaking the record of four set by themselves between 1908 and 1932.
Team GB came good in the last stretch to claim silver and Romania made a late surge to take bronze.
In the men’s event, Mahe Drysdale secured New Zealand’s second rowing gold medal of the Games. “But everyone on this table does that, so maybe a little bit of luck on the day”. “Jeremie is always very generous during the race in his effort”.
After trailing Canada and Netherlands in the first half, the USA crew took the lead in the third section of the race.
“But it really, really made me know for sure that I wanted to be rowing”. That was the best race I’ve ever had.
Following the race, Eddie told the BBC: “We have worked so hard to get here but it is not just for us it is for everyone who has rowed in the women’s eight in the last 20 years”.
Meanwhile Great Britain’s Helen Glover and Heather Stanning’s win in the women’s pair marked the first time a British women’s crew has defended an Olympic title, while the women’s eight’s silver was the first in this boat class for Great Britain.
Gold-medal favorite, Australia’s Kim Brennan, New Zealand’s Emma Twigg, and Switzerland’s Jeannine Gmelin will join Stone, Jingli and Lobnig in Saturday’s medal race.
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Silver medallist Germany came nipping at Britain’s heels in the final stretch, finishing just 1.33 seconds behind the gold medal victor. Also qualifying for Saturday’s medal race were Croatia’s Damir Martin, Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez, Hannes Obreno, and surprise qualifier Stanisla Shchabachenia of Belarus, who used a huge move late in the race to surprise the field and snag a qualifying spot.
