News

Posted: August 12, 2016

Lossiemouth's Heather Stanning retained her Olympic crown when she and her partner Helen Glover dominated their coxless pairs final on Friday morning.
The British pair were in charge from the first stroke and built a lead in the first half.  By the 1500-metre mark they were four seconds ahead of the field and could afford to watch the others scramble for the minor medals as they stayed out of trouble at the head of the field.

In the run-in New Zealand just got ahead of Denmark for silver and the Danes - who had pushed Stanning and Glover all the way in the opening heats earlier in the week - had to settle for bronze.

Afterwards, Stanning said, "I'm pretty exhausted but ecstatic to have done that...it means an awful lot.  I've been an emotional wreck this week - maybe that's a bit extreme, but it means such a lot.  It just reiterates how much this means to me, how much Helen and I have worked, and Robin (coach Robin Williams) as well.  It's been a fantastic three years back with Helen and Robin.  It means so much - I couldn't have asked for a better person to train with, or a better coach."

Asked about her thoughts during the race, she added, "we were very much in the moment.  Helen was calling 'stay in the process, stay in the process' and it was really important not to get carried away.  We had a good start, but at the same time we weren't looking to do anything amazing.  We weren't looking for fireworks today, we were just looking to do a good row and to go out and win that race...which we did."

She was also asked about the duo's unbeaten record since 2012 and she said, "it doesn't matter whether you're unbeaten or not, it matters about winning this final race.   How we get there? We use every race as a learning process.  The most important race to win was today, and we did.  There were certain moments down the track when you think 'they're not going to come back at us' and ' I know we've got more in the tank'.  We felt really confident in what we were doing."

Stanning was also rich in her praise for coach Robin Williams, saying, "without Robin we would be nobody, so a massive thanks to Robin, he's the best coach in the world."

Later, the British coxless four also won gold, making this the fifth time in succession that Britain has won this boat class.

The British rowing team has two more strong medal chances - in the finals of the men's and women's eights on Saturday, with the Edinburgh duo of Karen Bennett and Polly Swann racing in the women's eight.

Article by Mike Haggerty.Photograph courtesy of Peter Spurrier/Intersport Images

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