By Philip O’Connor
PARIS (Reuters) – Having seen their men win gold a few minutes earlier, the Netherlands’ female quadruple scullers looked all set to make it double Dutch on Wednesday, only for Britain to snatch gold from their grasp on the very last stroke of the Olympic final.
It was easily the most stunning finish so far at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, and Britain’s Georgina Brayshaw was finding it hard to grasp.
“I don’t even know how I’m here. Why am I doing this? It’s like I haven’t even landed yet. This is just crazy,” an elated Brayshaw told Reuters, her gold medal around her neck.
“I’m just Georgie, you know, like nothing special at all, but I’ve just gone and done that, and it just shows that you can do anything.”
Brayshaw is certainly special now, as part of the first British crew to win gold in the event, in a finish for the ages.
“I had no idea what was going on, I didn’t know whether we were winning or losing, I’d no idea – it was all about belief and trust in what people behind me were saying, and they told me that we could do it, and so I just kept going.”
There were conflicting feelings for the vanquished Dutch, who took a silver that could just has easily have been gold.
“There’s a lot of adrenaline, so in a way you feel kind of excited and very disappointed, because we were really, really close, and you only have a chance like this one time every four years,” Roos de Jong said.
“It’s heavy, but I’m kind of proud.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
