Imogen rows to Olympic gold in Paris

Bar Hill-raised Imogen Grant won gold alongside Emily Craig in the final of the lightweight women’s double sculls at the Olympic Games in Paris this morning.

Today’s victory is the culmination of a remarkable Olympiad for Team GB’s Grant and Craig, who have been unbeaten as a pair since finishing fourth at the Games in Tokyo three years ago.

Ionela Cozmiuc and Gianina-Elena Beleaga in the Romanian boat – viewed as the British’s pair’s main rival for the top prize – threw down the gauntlet early on with a fast start off the line.

However, world record holders Grant and Craig had got themselves in front by the 500m checkpoint, after which there was no way back for the rest of the field.

Their advantage continued to grow and while there was a late sprint from the Romanian in the closing stages, Grant and Craig crossed the line with an almost two-second lead in what is the final ever Olympic lightweight contest – the event will not be part of the roster from Los Angeles 2028 and beyond.

Paying tribute to her trusted partner, an emotional three-time Boat Race winner Grant said: “Emily is the toughest, most incredible person I’ve ever had the pleasure of rowing with.

“I’ve rowed for nearly 10 years and half of that has been with Emily. She took me from a clueless single sculler who did not know how to row a double to an Olympic champion.

She’s been there ever step of the way when I’ve had my wobbles and ups and downs – and when she’s had her ups and downs. I kind of want to just go out there and do it again.”

Meanwhile, earlier today Grant’s one-time Cambridge University Boat Club team-mates Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith went agonisingly close to winning gold medals of their own.

The duo led for almost the entirety of the men’s pair final, only to be pipped by the Croatian Sinkovic brothers, who went ahead in the closing 20m and won by 0.45 seconds.

Speaking about the British silver medallists on BBC Sport, Moe Sbihi – a British Olympic champion from 2016 – said: “The suffering, the pain they were going through, it disorientates you.

“It makes you make really simple, easy mistakes and it's no fault of their own. They put themselves in that hurt-locker for so long in that race.

“They did 99 per cent of that right. It was just heartbreak for them. It's a great advert, again, for the last stroke always counts.”