Karen Bennett, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Zoe de Toledo, Jessica Eddie, Katie Greves, Frances Houghton, Zoe Lee, Polly Swann and Melanie Wilson made up Team GB’s team and they got off to a sluggish start.
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Britain finished in 5 minutes 58.61 seconds, 1.83 ahead.
But they fell back in the latter half as the Britons won by almost two seconds.
Swann added: “To be honest at 500 I thought we were going to win”. “I believed with every stroke we had what it took. It was incredible. These girls are strong, they’re sassy, they’re inspirational and I am so happy to be here with them”.
Before the Games there was some speculation that the British eight, the European champions, could have been joined by Katherine Grainger and Vicky Thornley when their double scull boat was dissolved. Eleanor Logan of Stanford was a member of Saturday’s winning crew.
Great Britain led from the start with a furious pace set against Germany, who were their main rivals for gold.
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They were more than two seconds behind the United States, holding off Romania by only 0.12 seconds. “Hard, hard, work, having vision of what is coming up and running a good training programme – and they’re still having fun”. This was the Americans’ third Olympic gold in a row.
