It’s a bit of a lie in today as we don’t have to travel far to our first event. We take the short walk to Schinias Rowing Centre in the hope of seeing another Gold medal. When we’d booked these tickets Britain’s leading rowers (Matt Pinsent and James Cracknell) had been competing in the pairs. By the time that the Olympic teams had been announced they had transferred to the Men’s Four. Fortunately, for us, the two finals were on the same day.
We find and enter the open stand and the heat is again overpowering. The girls from the campsite have grabbed the seats at the end of the stand, but we also have a clear view of the finish line.
The first event was the Women’s Single Sculls, which was won by the German Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski. The Men’s Single Sculls followed, with a victory for the Norwegian Olaf Tufte.
There was British interest in the next race, the Women’s Pairs Final. The Canadians got off to a good start and by the first check point they are leading the Rumanians by 0.19 seconds, with the British team of (Katherine Grainger and Cath Bishop) in fourth.
At the half-way stage the Rumanian’s (who both held Olympic Gold medals from Sydney) have moved into the lead. The British girls are still in fourth, 3.35 seconds behind). At 3000m the British girls are still in fourth, but there is just over a second between them and second place.
In a thrilling climax, the Belarussians, and then the Brits, move ahead of the Canadians and then the British girls catch and overtake the Belarussian team to clinch the silver medal.
The medal ceremony is on the other side of the lake from the spectators, but the medallists paddle past in front of the stands to show the crowd their awards.
The next event is the Men’s Pairs Final that was won by Matt Pinsent and James Cracknell four years ago. Unfortunately, there is no British team to defend their title and the gold’s got to Australians Drew Ginn and James Tomkins.
In a tight Women’s Double Sculls Final, the reigning world champions, New Zealands twin sisters Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, beat the Germans (Peggy Waleska and Britta Oppelt) by less than a second. But, Sarah Winckless and Elise Laverick secure a bronze for Britain with a strong finish.
The Men’s Double Sculls Final is won by the French crew of Sebastien Viellednet and Adrien Hardy. The Italians (Rossano Galtarossa and Alessio Sartori) had lead from the start but were overtaken in the last 500m by the French and Slovinians (Luka Spik and Iztok Cop).
Whilst we’re waiting for the start of the next race, I get talking to an english spectator. He travelled up to Olympus for the Shot Put, after attending the cross-country phase of the eventing and had been very impressed by the way that the Greeks had set up the ancient arena.
At last we reach the Final of the Men’s Four, and our hope for Gold. The British crew start of well and are ahead, of the Canadians, by 0.41 seconds at the 500m checkpoint. The lead is being held at 1000m (0.44 seconds), but a huge buzz goes around the stands when the Canadians are shown to be ahead by 0.51 seconds at the 1500m point. As the boats come into view there appears to be absolutely nothing between the two teams. They cross the line almost together, but we are sure that the Brits have won it. The scoreboard indicates that there will be a photograph to determine the winner.
At last the scoreboard reflects what the spectators have known. The margin of victory is only 0.08 seconds.
The victorious foursome (Steve Williams, James Cracknell, Ed Coode and Matt Pinsent) do there victory lap before going across the lake to collect their medals from the British IOC Member Craig Reedie.
There are a number of lesser classification finals still to be run, but we decide to head back to the campsite, for a bit of a rest, as we have two further events to watch this evening.