Rio 2016 Olympics: Great Britain win rowing gold in men’s eight

Great Britain stormed to victory in the men’s eight rowing event to claim their eighth gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

After trailing Canada and Netherlands in the first half, the USA crew took the lead in the third section of the race. The British eight however, coxed by De Toledo timed their charge well and held off Romania, who took the bronze. However, the British boat had a task on their hands if they were going to battle for gold with world champions the United States of America, who themselves finished another three seconds ahead of Britain in qualifying.

For Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Pete Reed, it is their third Olympic gold and for GB it is the fifth medal of the regatta, with a tally of three golds. Under coach Tom Terhaar, they have been unbeaten for 10 years and won all the world rowing championships and Olympic Games during this period.

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

“We’ve worked so hard to get here and it is not just us it is every women who has road in this eight for the last 20 years has been trying to do that and we did that for them”, Eddie told BBC Sport.

In the men’s eights, Britain unseated a favored German boat to claim gold in 5:29.16. Germany closed the gap slightly towards the end, claiming second just 1.33 seconds behind the gold-medal victor.

“There was no way we were going to let it get away this time”. We showed speed in training and today was about delivering. “We knew what we had to do”, Durant said. “It’s a little bit surreal”.

The result means that Britain top the medals table in rowing with three golds and five in total, while Germany and New Zealand have two apiece.