Yahoo Finance Graeme Thomas and John Collins reach Olympic final as women’s four and men’s quad grab repechage chance
It was a much-needed good day for Britain’s rowers as four of the five boats in action kept their Olympic hopes alive.
After a mixed opening two days of the regatta, several of Britain’s crews were facing the prospect of an early departure from these Games, and not only because organisers had brought Monday’s races forward to Sunday in light of an adverse weather forecast.
However, both the women’s four and men’s quadruple sculls were able to take the second chance given to them by the repechage, winning their respective races to reach the final.
“The goal was top two but you’ve got to try and beat everyone if you want to do your best here,” said Angus Groom of the men’s crew. “Each race, we just want to try and win.
“We just want to make the boat go as quickly as possible and if that means we’re three lengths up or an inch up, that’s all we want to be.
“We’re just trying to make our boat go as fast as possible from start to finish.”
Elsewhere, single sculler Vicky Thornley, a silver medalist from Rio, finished third in her quarter-final to advance to the semis, while the men’s double scull pairing of Graeme Thomas and John Collins qualified for the final after finishing second in theirs.
“I got the job done in terms of through to the semis,” Thornley said. “Probably not ideally the result I would’ve liked but it’s about taking it a round at a time and you’ve got to play the game a little bit, making sure that you’re not putting all your eggs in the one race.
“I was really happy with the first half – it’s fine. If I had come 2nd, I would still be in the same semi-final. Now it’s about learning from that, recovering well for two day and then the big semi-final.”
The sole disappointment came in the women’s quadruple sculls, where the British crew could only finish fourth in the repechage and will go into the B final.
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