Olympic Rowing 2016: Medal Winners, Table and Times for Friday's Results
The Dutch pair of Maaike Head and Ilse Paulis claimed gold in the women's lightweight double sculls on Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas at Rio 2016 on Friday, with Canada winning silver and China bronze.
In the men's race it was world champions France who came home in first, with Irish brothers Gary and Paul O'Donovan taking silver and the ever-consistent Norwegians bronze.
The day's later events brought double joy for Great Britain, as their teams won fold in the women's pair final and the men's four too.
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Here are the results from the rowing finals on Friday:
| Final | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Women's Lightweight Double Sculls | Netherlands (7:04.73) | Canada (7:05.88) | China (7:06.49) |
| Men's Lightweight Double Sculls | France (6:30.70) | Ireland (6:31.23) | Norway (6:31.39) |
| Women's Pair | Great Britain (7:18.29) | New Zealand (7:19.53) | Denmark (7:20.71) |
| Men's Four | Great Britain (5:58.61) | Australia (6:00.44) | Italy (6:03.85) |
The Netherlands eventually won the women's lightweight race in some style as South Africa faded after setting the early pace.
It was a fierce battle in the race for silver, though, and Canada's Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee had to dig deep to hold on to second place as they crossed the line.
Wenyi Huang and Feihong Pan of China looked to be making a late break for the silver medal but could not quite overhaul the Canadians.
The men's race was incredibly tight with five of the six boats still in the mix for gold with 500 metres to go.
French duo Pierre Houin and Jeremie Azou edged ahead with the final strokes and finished brilliantly to hold off the Irish brothers, with Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli completing the podium.
The last two finals of the day brought two gold medals for Great Britain in under half an hour.
In the women’s pair Helen Glover and Heather Stanning heaved their way to victory, with New Zealand and Denmark coming home in second and third, respectively. It meant the pair defended the title they won in London four years ago and Glover noted just how important that was.
“Heather was amazing,” she said of her team-mate, per BBC Sport. “…London was a home games and there was nothing more special but this is defending a title, it means so much. The pressure was pretty immense.”
While there wasn’t too much between the Britons and the New Zealand duo of Genevieve Behrent and Rebecca Scown, the race always looked to be under the champions’ control. Bleacher Report UK noted just how dominant the duo have been in this discipline:
The Great Britain team going in the men’ fours were evidently inspired by the performance of their compatriots, as they also ground out gold.
The foursome of Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, George Nash and Constantine Louloudis held off a rally from Australia, who came home in second, while Italy finished in bronze medal position.
“I didn’t know what was happening four years ago but today sitting on the start line was horrible, it was tortuous,” said Gregory, part of the winning team in London, per BBC Sport. “But we nailed that. It was our perfect race at the right time on the right day.”
As noted by Oliver Holt of the Mail on Sunday, Gregory made a massive sacrifice to be at these Games:
The team certainly rowed as if they had something to prove. It was neck-and-neck between them and Australia initially, before Great Britain pulled ahead at the halfway point. The crew in green and gold tried to respond with a big push, although they were overpowered in the final stages by the eventual winners.
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