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Emily Craig and Imogen Grant won Olympic gold for Great Britain in the lightweight women’s double sculls at Paris 2024 after Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George claimed silver in the men’s pair.
Craig and Grant finished just 0.01 seconds off the podium and 0.5 seconds from gold in Tokyo three years ago, with the 31-year-old Grant keeping a picture of the photo finish on her living room wall as inspiration.
It has certainly worked as they are unbeaten during this Olympiad and delivered on their status as pre-race favourites to win by 1.72 seconds from the Romanian pair Gianina van Groningen and Ionela Cozmiuc.
Craig was in tears after the race finished. 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.
Although slightly slow at the start, the British pair nosed in front after 400 metres and had opened up a one-second lead by the mid-point of the race, finding clear water to give themselves a cushion to hold off the late Romanian sprint.
That was something Wynne-Griffith and George had not been able to do as they led for the majority of the men’s pair race, only to be beaten in a frantic finish by Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia, who won in a time of six minutes 23.66 seconds – less than half a second in front of the British pair.
Wynne Griffith, who like George was part of the GB men’s eight crew that won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, blamed himself for getting it wrong at the finish.
“I don’t know, I made a mistake on the line and that’s racing for you,” he said. “Olympic silver medallists, I’m so proud of what we did.
“We had a great start and had a great first 1500m honestly, just on the last four strokes it was a case of winning or losing unfortunately.
“I can’t fault the passion and grit and result that we’ve gone through as a pair and I’ve enjoyed the ride and every second of it.”
George added: “I don’t think I want to watch that back it was so close. We did an awesome race and did exactly what we said we wanted to do and we’re proud of what we achieved. These things happen.
“A lot was made of us after the semi-finals and we came in as favourites. All season whenever we’ve won we’ve reminded ourselves that we’re going to be hunted and we tried to go well and we did, just three strokes short. I’m proud.”
