THE reaction of Katherine Grainger and Cath Bishop after they crossed the line spoke volumes for their ambitions here in Athens. No world champions would be satisfied with mere silver on the ultimate stage, but by the end of a supremely emotional morning for both the men’s and the women’s squads on Lake Schinias, there were just the glimpses of consolation for the British pair in winning the silver medal behind a crack Romanian pairing.
Though the men’s four — and Matthew Pinsent’s quest for a fourth gold — commanded most of the attention yesterday, just as Steve Redgrave had done four years earlier, nothing should take away from the achievement of Grainger, an ebullient Scot who has added another medal to the silver won in Sydney in the quadruple sculls. She has become the symbol of the recent surge in performance and confidence of the women’s squad, who could add a gold in the quadruple sculls this morning to yesterday’s silver and bronze. Four years ago, the quadruple scull won the first ever medal by a women’s crew.
“I’ve now won two silvers, here and in Sydney,” Grainger said. “That can’t be bad.” Perhaps she was trying to convince herself because, having beaten the Romanians to become unexpected world champions in Milan last September, their horizons had been raised towards the top place on the podium.
Bishop and Grainger have always shown a turn of speed in their pair, most notably in winning the world championships with a seemingly impossible flourish over the last 500m. All season they have been promising a repeat of the charge at the Olympics, while concentrating much of their training on improving their starts and establishing a steady, rhythmic pace through the middle 1,000m of the race. But neither they nor their coach, Paul Thompson, had expected quite such a flat opening heat to the regatta. Not only did the British pair fail to spark in a competitive heat, but they were trounced by the Belarussians. Though both girls talked bravely of having a week to improve, there was no disguising their disappointment. Perhaps that infected their thinking, despite a commanding victory in the repechage three days later.
Yesterday, once the Romanians had established a commanding lead at halfway, Grainger and Bishop were racing for second. Achieving even that looked improbable enough at the 1500m mark when the GB crew were trailing behind the Belarussians, the Canadians and the Romanians.
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Inch by inch, Grainger and Bishop swept through the field until their bow showed ahead of all but the Romanian pair of Georgeta Damian and Viorica Susanu. “I thought if we were close enough we might be able to catch the leaders. Unfortunately they were well clear,” said Thompson.
The day’s other medal went to Sarah Winckless and Elise Laverick in the double sculls, a success that was all the better for being so unexpected. Fourth at halfway, Winckless and Laverick overtook the Bulgarian crew for their well-deserved reward. By nightfall, the British squad lay proudly on top of the medals table for Olympic rowing.