British rowers smash record

On July 30, 2012

British rowers Great Britain duo Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins hope the home fans can cheer them to glory in the double sculls final on Friday.

The two women, who have never lost since teaming up together in 2010, broke the Olympic record by nearly five seconds in their heat as they clocked up a spectacular time of six minutes 44.33 seconds.

We’re very lucky to have this incredible support from around the country. It lifts you like nothing else.

Katherine Grainger

The British rowers Grainger and Watkins smashed the previous record which had been set 20 years ago in Barcelona by Germany.

Afterwards, an exhilarated Grainger said: “I’m really pleased with our first event. You can hear the crowd but you feel it in your body, pulsing through you.

“We’re very lucky to have this incredible support from around the country. It lifts you like nothing else.

“The plan for the next four days is feet up… not! We’ve got an adrenaline high now and we’re both aware we can enjoy it for the next few hours, but we need to bring it back down. We’ll head back to training and a dull lifestyle to get everything in place for Friday.”

Meanwhile, the British men’s four won their heat to progress to Thursday’s semi-finals and the eight won the repechage to qualify for Wednesday’s final.

GB are 3/1 to win the men’s eight final while Australia can be backed at 50/1and Canada at 14/1.