Team GB's men's quadruple scull team qualify for Olympic final

 

Alex Lowe
Wednesday 01 August 2012 12:13 BST
Comments
August 1, 2012: (From foreground) Rowers of Italy, Switzerland, New Zealand and the US start running the men's quadruple sculls repechages 1 of the rowing event during the London 2012 Olympic Games, at Eton Dorney
August 1, 2012: (From foreground) Rowers of Italy, Switzerland, New Zealand and the US start running the men's quadruple sculls repechages 1 of the rowing event during the London 2012 Olympic Games, at Eton Dorney (GETTY IMAGES)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The Great Britain men's quadruple scull team qualified for the Olympic final after finishing third in today's semi-final, behind world bronze medallists Croatia and Australia.

Matt Wells, Tom Solesbury, Charles Cousins and Stephen Rowbotham produced the fastest last 500 metres of any crew in the field to move up from fourth and into the qualification places.

The British crew closed in on Australia in the final stretch but were just beaten to the line by three tenths of a second.

The men's quad final is on Friday.

The British pair of George Nash and Will Satch claimed a commanding semi-final victory to qualify for the Olympic final in their debut international season.

Nash and Satch recovered from a slow start to lead by half-way from France and they had opened a clear water advantage by the 1750metre mark.

France responded with a powerful finish but the British crew held them off to win by three-quarters of a length and announce themselves as medal contenders in Friday's final.

World champions New Zealand's Hamish Bond and Eric Murray won their semi-final and will be almost unbackable favourites for gold.

Alan Campbell, the world bronze medallist, qualified for the single sculls final in second place behind Ondrej Synek from the Czech Republic.

Campbell started well and he led the field for the first 1250 metres but Synek produced a strong finish to claim the race win by a length.

Mahe Drysdale, the five-time world champion, won the first semi-final comfortably and will be favourite to win his first Olympic gold medal.

But it promises to be a thrilling race for the podium with Campbell, Synek and Sweden's Lassi Karonen all in medal contention.

PA

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in