Great Britain celebrate after winning the silver medal in the women’s eight at Rio 2016.
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The celebrations had barely subsided by the time the men’s crew took to the water, producing a dominant display to see off Germany and end the final race of the regatta atop of the podium.
Defending champion Andy Murray guaranteed himself another Olympic medal as he reached the final where he will do battle with Juan Martin Del Potro for the gold medal. I am thinking we, we, we – the boys are fantastic.
Paul Bennett, Scott Durant, Matt Gotrel, Phelan Hill, Matt Langridge, tom Ransley, Pete Reed, Will Satch and Andrew T Hodge made up the Team GB men’s eight squad.
That last race, the blue riband event, the men’s eight, saw the British boat lead for the bulk of the race.
“That’s been worth the wait”.
However, they were never altogether in the clear and their margin over both the German crew in second place and the Netherlands in third was less than two seconds. US crews suffered disappointment, with the women’s pair, expected to contend for a medal, finishing fourth and the men’s lightweight double finishing fifth.
Houghton, 35, was the only member of the boat with an Olympic medal in her locker, having taken women’s quad silver in Athens and Beijing.
It was a poignant occasion for Houghton after her father Robin died earlier in the year, with his flag brought to the Lagoa by her mother Andrea. It’s such a great bunch of guys and that was a big, big race.
“There was no way we were going to let it get away this time”.
“I think it’s quite special the tradition we do have in rowing”. I think he knew that I had done enough.
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In the women’s eight final, the USA team of Emily Regan, Kerry Simmons, Amanda Polk, Lauren Schmetterling, Tessa Gobbo, Meghan Musnicki, Eleanor Logan, Amanda Elmore and Katelin Snyder won gold with a time of 6:01.49, beating out Britain and Romania, which took silver and bronze, respectively.
