Romania took the bronze, the United states the gold and Britain the silver.
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Heather Stanning and Helen Glover are the first British women to win the same rowing event twice.
Puig is ranked 34th and is the first unseeded women’s singles gold medalist since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988.
The men’s eight were Scott Durant, Tom Ransley, Andrew Triggs Hodge, Matt Gotrel, Peter Reed, Paul Bennett, Matt Langrdige, Will Satch, with Phelan Hill coxing. Eddie and Greves finished fifth in the eights at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, while Wilson was sixth in the women’s quad four years ago.
The first British medal in the women’s eight capped off memorable Olympic debuts for Bennett, Carnegie-Brown, Lee, Swann and De Toledo.
“That’s been worth the wait”. China took bronze after silver in 2012. USA crews suffered disappointment, with the women’s pair, expected to contend for a medal, finishing fourth and the men’s lightweight double finishing fifth. We’ve never been so ready.
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. I could see what was going on around me and I was pretty confident that some of those crews were doing too much and I knew we were in a really, really strong rhythm and what our last 1,000m could do for us.
Speaking afterwards, Eddie hailed all the women who had helped to get them there, telling the BBC: “I’m so proud of these nine girls but there’s about 50 more behind us that got us here”.
“I think it’s quite special the tradition we do have in rowing. When I was rowing, it was just all about rowing and I was so lucky to have the rowing to get me through that, and my dad to get me through the rowing”.
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Victory was Britain’s third gold on the picturesque Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon beside Copacabana beach for a five medal haul.
