Olympic rowing: GB’s Craig and Grant win gold after Wynne-Griffith and George claim silver
Emily Craig and Imogen Grant won Great Britain’s second rowing gold of the Paris Olympics with a commanding performance in the women’s lightweight double sculls.
They took the lead after 500m of the 2,000m race and pulled away to win by almost a length from fast-finishing Romania and Greece in third.
The victory completes a remarkable run for the duo, who have been unbeaten since missing out on a medal at the Tokyo Olympics by 0.01 seconds.
They celebrated by throwing their arms into the air as they added the Olympic title to back-to-back world and European triumphs.
There were floods of tears and beaming smiles as they received their gold medals before heading off to celebrate with their friends and families in the stands.
“The tears were for all the training, early nights, parties and weddings missed, just all of it coming out at once,” said Grant, who starts work as a junior doctor two days after the closing ceremony on 11 August.
“It’s joy, relief, disbelief, tiredness, joy again, so much happiness and that feeling of a job well done.”
Craig said she was “overwhelmed to be standing here” and proud to have “owned every stroke of the race” which took six minutes 47.06 seconds.
Their triumph came after childhood friends Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George were pipped to the gold medal in the men’s pair in a dramatic finale.
Wynne-Griffith, from Wales, and George, of England, led for the majority of the race and looked set to win but Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic charged past them in the closing 20m and won by 0.45 seconds to retain their title.
Having put in such a huge effort, the British duo’s disappointment was clear to see, with Wynne-Griffith admitting to getting the finish wrong.
“I made a mistake on the line and that’s racing for you,” he said. “Olympic silver medallists… I’m so proud of what we did.”
George added: “Despite the last three strokes, with a bit of hindsight we’ll be incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved.”
Britain have now won six medals including two golds in the rowing competition – four more than they won in Tokyo – with one day left.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan retained their Olympic lightweight men’s double sculls title with a brilliant performance, crossing the line two seconds clear of silver medallists Italy with Greece taking bronze.
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