Emily Craig and Imogen Grant won gold for Great Britain in the lightweight women’s double sculls at the Paris 2024 Olympics, while Ollie Wyn Griffiths and Tom George won silver in the men’s pairs.
Craig and Grant finished just 0.01 seconds off the podium and 0.5 seconds off gold in Tokyo three years ago, and Grant, 31, keeps a picture of the photo finish hanging on his living room wall as inspiration.
The plan certainly worked, as they remained unbeaten in the tournament and remained the pre-race favorites to win, winning by 1.72 seconds over Romania’s Janina van Groningen and Ionela Kozmiuc.
Craig was in tears after the race. Their coveted title is now theirs for good. This will be the last time the event will be part of the Olympic Games.
Despite a slightly slow start, the British pair took the lead just after 400 metres and opened up a one-second lead by the middle of the race, finding clean water which gave them the breathing room to hold off the Romanian sprint in the closing stages.
That wasn’t possible for Wyn Griffiths and George, who led for much of the men’s pairs race, but were beaten in a fierce finish by Croatia’s Martin and Valent Sinkovic to win in 6:23.66, less than half a second ahead of the British pair.
Like George, Wyn Griffiths, who was part of the British men’s eights crew that won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, blamed himself for making a mistake in the finish.
“I don’t know, I made a mistake at the finish line, but that’s racing,” he said. “To my fellow Olympic silver medalists, I’m very proud of what we did. We had a great start and honestly a great first 1500m. Unfortunately the last four strokes were a win-or-lose situation. I can’t fault the result and the passion and grit that we put in as a pair to get through it. I enjoyed the race and every moment of it.”
George added: “I don’t want to rewatch that race. It was so close. We ran a great race and did exactly what we said we were going to do. I’m proud of our accomplishment. These things happen. A lot was said about us after the semi-final and we went in as favourites. All season, whenever we won, we told ourselves we could come back and we tried to do well. And we won by three strokes. I’m proud of ourselves.”
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Meanwhile, Irish rowers Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan have won back-to-back Olympic gold medals, having won the lightweight men’s double sculls in Tokyo three years ago and repeating the feat in Paris.
Though they recorded the fastest time in the heats, they fell behind the teams of Greece and Italy in the early stages, but easily overtook them by the halfway mark and kept pushing to pull away in the final 500 metres. McCarthy and O’Donovan crossed the line in 6 minutes 10.99 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of silver-medal winner Italy, to claim the bronze medal for Greece.
