Great Britain rowers prove that Tokyo Games were a blip with eight-medal haul in Paris

Team GB finished second in Rowing’s medal table securing the same number of medals as the Netherlands who had one more gold.

Great Britain’s men’s eight Sholto Carnegie, Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, Jacob Dawson, Charles Elwes, Tom Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford plus cox Harry Brightmore with their gold medals (Peter Byrne/PA). (PA Wire)

So, Tokyo 2020 was a blip after all for Great Britain’s rowers.

After topping rowing’s medal table at three successive Olympics, British crews – metaphorically if not literally – struggled to keep afloat on Japanese water.

One silver and one bronze was a dismal return; 14th place in the standings quite frankly an embarrassment for a traditional powerhouse of British Olympic sport.

Three years on, Team GB finished second to the Netherlands at Paris 2024 with three gold, two silver and three bronze as 36 of the 42-strong squad returned home with a medal.

The Dutch had one more gold as Britain matched their overall total of eight.

Britain’s gold rush was started by the women’s quadruple sculls crew of Lauren Henry, Georgie Brayshaw, Hannah Scott and Lola Anderson, who overtook the Netherlands in the final metres to edge a photo finish.

A tearful Anderson pulled on the heartstrings as she told how late father Don had returned a diary entry to her two months before his death from cancer in 2019.

Anderson had scribbled a short entry in her diary as a 13-year-old detailing her dream to become an Olympic champion before considering it a fanciful notion and discarding the note in a bin.

Emily Craig and Imogen Grant became the final Olympic lightweight women’s double sculls champions with the event to be removed from the programme at Los Angeles 2028.

The pair had not lost a single race since missing out on bronze by just 0.01 seconds in Tokyo.

The men’s eight added Olympic gold to their world championship title with Tom Ford celebrating gold just 20 minutes after sister Emily had won bronze in the women’s eight.

Coxswain Henry Fieldman became the first person to win an Olympic medal in both men’s and women’s events. He had swapped the men’s eight that had won bronze in Tokyo for the women’s boat in Paris.

Bronze, too, for the men’s four of Oli Wilkes, David Ambler, Freddie Davidson and Matt Aldridge, as well as Becky Wilde and Mathilda Hodgkins Byrne in the women’s double sculls.

There was also a silver lining for double Olympic champion Helen Glover in what could be the 37-year-old’s rowing swansong.

Cheered on by TV presenter husband Steve Backshall and their three children, Glover and Rebecca Shorten, Esme Booth and Sam Redgrave finished an agonising 0.18secs behind the Netherlands in the women’s four.

Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George upgraded their Tokyo bronze from the men’s eight by taking silver in the men’s pair.