LONDON, United Kingdom – Rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won the women’s pair title Wednesday to register Great Britain’s first gold medal at the London Olympics.
The pair, also capturing the host nation’s first ever women’s Olympic rowing gold medal, crossed the line well clear of Australia with world champions New Zealand taking bronze.
Glover and Stanning had the race sewn up in the first quarter of the 2000m test on the water at Eton Dorney, at one stage pulling four boat lengths clear of their rivals.
Unbeaten in World Cup races this year, the British duo started as hot favourites, having set a new Olympic record in their heat – a remarkable achievement considering Glover hadn’t even sat in a boat four years ago.
She took to rowing via a recruitment campaign by UK Sport and said: “This shows that if I can do it, and work hard, anyone can do anything.”
Stanning is a captain in the Royal Artillery Regiment and her colleagues, currently on a tour of duty in Afghanistan, were one of the first to offer her congratulations on a live video link up on the BBC.
She said: “I’m shattered and overjoyed. Helen was saying ‘keep going, keep going’ at the end. We wanted to get ahead quickly and that’s what we did.”
Second British gold
Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins of Britain bagged the fourth Olympic gold medal of his career here Wednesday after blitzing his rivals to win the men’s road race time trial.
Germany’s reigning world champion Tony Martin finished second to take the silver with Britain’s Chris Froome in third taking the bronze.
Wiggins, crowned Britain’s first yellow jersey champion 10 days ago, hit an average speed of 52.11 km/h for the 44 km race against the clock which started and finished at the former residence of King Henry VIII, Hampton Court Palace.
Reigning world champion Martin was racing under par after suffering a broken wrist on the Tour de France and he did well to clock 51:21.
Froome, who finished runner-up to Wiggins on the Tour de France, timed 51:47 to keep American Taylor Phinney off the bronze by just 11secs.
Defending Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara, who was also racing with injury after banging his shoulder Saturday in a crash during the men’s road race, finished well out of the medals in 52:53.
It is Wiggins’ first Olympic title on the road, having won his three previous gold in track cycling’s pursuit events. – Agence France-Presse
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