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Two more A finals for Team GB rowers as heats come to a close

Great Britain’s Men’s and Women’s eights are into their respective finals after both crews took the single A final spot in their heats of the Olympic Rowing Regatta at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Paris

They join the men’s and women’s fours and the men’s and women’s quads who have also qualified directly for A finals.

The Women’s pair have also today progressed through to the A/B semi-final joining the Lightweight women’s double sculls, the Men’s pair and Women’s double sculls, who all qualified over the weekend. This means that all 10 Team GB crews have progressed positively through their heats.

Heidi Long, Rowan McKellar, Holly Dunford, Emily Ford, Lauren Irwin, Eve Stewart, Hattie Taylor, Annie Campbell-Orde, and cox, Henry Fieldman put in a confident performance to win their Women’s Eight (W8+) heat.

Hattie said: “It’s really good to get going. With the eights there is always a bit of a wait – initially, we were grateful to have a few more days than the rest of the team but by Saturday we wanted to get on with it and it’s great to have one race done.”

Heidi added: “It’s been really exciting watching the rest of our squad race. We are a really close team and we can get confidence from the other cews. Watching the quad, the four, the lightweight doubles earlier just walk away in the third 500m gave us confidence in our legs that we could do the same. So there are pros and cons to racing last but great to get our first race under our belts. We’re happy with our performance today.”

Sholto Carnegie, Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, Jacob Dawson, Charlie Elwes, Tom Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford and cox, Harry Brightmore were once again dominant, winning the Men’s eight (M8+) heat five seconds ahead of Australia.

“It was a good race”, Jacob said, adding: “We knew we had to execute a strong performance to get through to the final. It was about keeping to our processes – simple is better. There’s so much time between now and the final, so you could have a flat out race today and still be able to perform. It wouldn’t have changed anything for us – if we’d had to fight to the line we are fully prepared to do that. It just so happened that we executed our first 1,500m well enough that we were able to enjoy the last 500m a little more. The expectation for us is to be on the hunt and execute the best race that we can. There’s no more to it.”

Sholto said: “Stevie (Steve Trapmore, coach) always has a plan for us so we follow his lead. There is always expectation but ultimately we’ve got to keep the focus in the crew and do the simple things right. That’s what we’ve done all the way through this Olympiad and we’re going to keep going, searching for more, keep it as simple as possible.”

The Women’s pair (W2-) of Chloe Brew and Rebecca Edwards were third in their repechage and now progress to the A/B semi-final. Rebecca said: “You want to beat everybody but today our goal was to get to the A/B semi finals. Nobody is getting a medal today. That race was high pressure because either our Olympics would finish or we could keep going. We’d love to beat everyone but the most important thing is to take the steps.

“I think yesterday was interesting because the results from the heat didn’t follow the patterns at all. Everyone has gone away and worked hard and brought their best – and you want to compete against the best. For us we’ve learnt that small boat racing is tactical and physical – you can go as hard as you want but you have to be able to row in a way that is sustainable and play the race plan. It’s been a really big learning curve. No matter what the result is it’s always important to Chloe and I that we can show our best and that we’ve left no stone unturned. You can take great satisfaction in putting your best out there. That’s all you can do. The worst thing to be is ruled by the fear of going home and not showing what you can do. That pressure is there and I’m proud of how we handled it.”

Chloe concluded: “We know what to do if we’re in that situation again. I was confident that we could do it this morning. I didn’t think about a scenario where we wouldn’t be here and I think that came through in our race. We definitely improved on yesterday. “

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