Team GB have won the women’s quadruple sculls gold in a photo finish, after a late surge took them past the Netherlands to win the event for the first time at the Olympic Games.
Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw had appeared destined for the silver medal in the closing stages of the race.
The British quartet trailed the Netherlands with 250 metres remaining of the race at the Stade nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne.
A stunning finish to the race saw the crew dramatically close the gap to the rivals.
The rival teams crossed the finish side by side, with a photo finish required to separate the boats.
Britain have won the women’s quadruple sculls rowing gold for the first time at the Olympics
A photo finish was required to determine the winners with Team GB crossing the finish first
There was British delight and Dutch devastation when the final result was confirmed
The photo finish showed the British crew, below, had narrowly edged ahead to clinch gold
Team GB’s crew were soon able to begin celebrations after the photo revealed they had edged ahead of the Dutch at the finish.
The 2023 world champions finished the race in a time of 6min 16.31sec, ending just 0.15 seconds clear of their rivals to win gold.
Germany completed the podium places in 6:19.70.
‘The crew today, Georgie, Lauren and Lola were amazing,’ said Scott.
‘We played it so cool up until the end.
‘We had the confidence, we have done so many hard miles in training.’
The result means Britain have already improved on their gold medal tally from the previous Olympics, after coming away from Tokyo with only one silver and bronze.
