Olympics-Rowing-Britain men’s eight take gold to top table

The medals come on what fans hope will be a repeat of Super Saturday from the London 2012 Olympics, which saw huge wins for Team GB from Greg Rutherford, Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill.

The Americans finished the course in 6:01.49, defeating silver medalist Great Britain and bronze medalist Romania by more than two seconds.

The squad of Rowsell-Shand, Katie Archibald, Laura Trott and Elinor Barker beat the world champion United States in the finals of the women’s team pursuit, their second straight victory in the event – in record time – giving their powerful track program its third gold medal.

After trailing Canada and Netherlands in the first half, the USA crew took the lead in the third section of the race.

Other historic wins included the first Olympic gold medal in rowing for Croatia as brothers Martin Sinkovic and Valent Sinkovic won the men’s double sculls.

The success following the women’s eight winning their first ever medal in the event after taking silver behind reigning champions US.

“I’m just so proud of these girls I just couldn’t have dreamed of a more awesome experience to finish on and it’s just so much trust in every single one of them”.

“Born in the USA” played over loudspeakers as American fans revelled in their country’s first rowing gold of the Rio Games.

“We’ve had a good set of pool games”, United States coach Craig Parnham said. Germany closed the gap slightly towards the end, claiming second just 1.33 seconds behind the gold-medal victor. We showed speed in training and today was about delivering.

Houghton praised all the other women who helped the team get to the podium: “It’s not only about us nine girls”. “It wasn’t by any means a flawless row, and I’m sure we had more in the tank”.

“Our flow was interrupted a little bit by some of the cards”, Parnham said.

“But it is not just for us it is for everyone who has rowed in the women’s eight in the last 20 years”.