When the British men’s eight scraped bronze on the final day of Tokyo’s rowing meet three years ago, it was a rather futile attempt at saving face, a plaster stuck over a gaping, gushing hole in the stern.
In upgrading to gold here in Paris, though, they capped a redemptive regatta, Team GB’s most successful ever at an Olympics overseas. A third gold medal matched the haul of Rio 2016; coupled with bronze in the women’s equivalent, the overall tally leapt to eight, two more than the previous record of six in Beijing.
