It’s Fantastic Friday! Team GB’s ladies rowers declare gold
Team GB is off to another flying start at the Paris Olympics today as Emily Craig and Imogen Grant secured a spectacular gold medal in the lightweight sculls after heartbreak in Tokyo.
Rowers Craig and Grant, who finished just 0.01 seconds off the podium in Tokyo three years ago, started the race as favourites and went in unbeaten during this Olympiad.
They delivered on that promise at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium and held off a last-ditch sprint by Romania, winning the competition by 1.72.
Elsewhere Team GB has already secured a silver in the Men’s edition of the race and a bronze in diving on the seventh day of the games, helping them rise to sixth place in the medal table with a total of seven golds.
The golden British pair were slightly slow from the off but nosed in front after 400 metres and continued to pull away, moving a second ahead by the mid-point of the race.
Emily Craig and Imogen Grant secured a spectacular gold medal in the lightweight sculls after heartbreak in Tokyo three years ago
Great Britain’s Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding also claimed bronze in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard final
Great Britain’s Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George receive their silver medals during the ceremony for the Rowing Men’s Pair finals
They created a healthy lead and found clear water to give themselves a cushion to hold off the late Romanian sprint.
Grant, who attended Cambridge, is a qualified doctor and a world and European champion. She is due to start her medical career in a matter of days.
Craig holds the same medal accolades and is also a qualified personal trainer.
The pair were in tears as the enormity of their achievement sunk in, and were shared an emotional embrace as they left their boat and returned to land.
The title they craved is now theirs in perpetuity, with this the last time the event is due to be part of an Olympic Games.
Elsewhere on Friday, Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George claimed silver for Great Britain in the men’s boat as Croatia pipped them at the post.
The duo pushed hard from the start and held a narrow lead from Romania at halfway.
They looked as if they would hold in a frantic finish, but Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia took gold with a desperate burst to the line to win in six minutes 23.66 seconds – less than half a second in front of the British pair.
Wynne-Griffith and George were part of the GB men’s eight crew that won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
They switched to the men’s pair after taking a year out to study at Cambridge and compete in the Boat Race.
Coming into the Games the pair were unbeaten in 2024, having won their first major title at the 2024 European Rowing Championships in April.
Great Britain’s Emily Craig and Imogen Grant celebrate winning gold in the Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls Finals
Emily Craig and Imogen Grant won gold in the women’s double sculls on Friday morning at the 2024 Olympic Games
The pair delivered a sensational performance to claim Team GB’s sixth medal of the rowing at the Olympics
Britain’s Laugher and Harding smile as they stand on the podium following their diving final
The pair posed with their medals, which contain a piece of the original Eiffel Tower
Team GB’s rowers have excelled in Paris over the last few days, with Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgina Brayshaw sealing a sensational victory in the women’s quadruple sculls on Wednesday.
Great Britain’s Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding also claimed bronze in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard final.
In Tokyo Laugher managed to clinch a bronze in the individual event but did not medal in the synchro competition.
This time the pair occupied a podium position from the first round, bouncing between second and third throughout the competition.
However, the colour of their medal was confirmed in the final round with a brilliant dive scoring 94.62.
China’s Zongyuan Wang and Daoyi Long finished with gold, while Mexico’s Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez and Osmar Olvera Ibarra took silver.
Fan favourite Tom Daley was again pictured crocheting in the background, as the team celebrated.
All the British divers who have so far competed in the games have come away with a medal.
Slovakia’s Tamara Potocka is taken on stretcher from the pool deck after collapsing following a heat of the women’s 200-meter individual medley at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024
Slovakian athlete Tamara Potocká collapsed after completing a swim at the Olympic Games this morning
Away from Team GB there was horror in the pool on Friday morning after Slovakian athlete Tamara Potocka collapsed following a swim in the 200m medley heats.
The 21-year-old competed in a heat of the women’s 200-meter individual medley at 10:30am BST this morning and clambered out of the pool having come in seventh, missing out on qualification for the later rounds.
She was seen sitting poolside for a few seconds in clear distress, even as another eight swimmers lined up for the next heat, before slumping backwards.
Organisers realised something was wrong and postponed the next swim as medical staff descended on the scene.
Medics quickly placed an oxygen mask over the face of the young Slovak, who was lying motionless, before carefully loading her onto a stretcher and rushing her out of the La Defense arena as her British rival Abbie Wood watched on in horror.
Her condition is not yet known.
