In a year that saw the 40th anniversary of women’s rowing joining the Olympic programme, it was fitting that the GB Rowing Team should mark the occasion with three pieces of history at the Rio 2016 Games.

Four years after becoming the first British female rowers to win an Olympic gold medal, the women’s pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning became the first to successfully defend their title as they stormed to victory on the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.

Katie Greves, Melanie Wilson, Frances Houghton, Polly Swann, Jess Eddie, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Karen Bennett, Zoe Lee and cox Zoe de Toledo became the first GB women’s eight to stand on an Olympic podium after taking silver in a thrilling final.

And Katherine Grainger became Britain’s most decorated female Olympian of all time when she and Vicky Thornley produced a performance of true grit and determination to win silver in the women’s double scull.

That was Grainger’s fifth medal from as many Games, a 16-year period that has contained a number of milestone moments for GB’s women on the Olympic stage.

The silver that Grainger won in the quadruple scull at the Sydney 2000 Games with Gillian Lindsay and the Batten sisters, Guin and Miriam, was a first-ever Olympic medal for British women.

Athens 2004 saw three of the four women’s boats that qualified for the Games come away with a medal. Grainger again won silver, this time in the pair with Cath Bishop; Alison Mowbray, Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton – who is also now a five-time Olympian – and Rebecca Romero matched that achievement in the quad; and Sarah Winckless and Elise Laverick won the first of four successive women’s doubles medals for GB as they took bronze.

Laverick won another bronze in the double at Beijing 2008 with Anna Watkins (nee Bebington), while Grainger again had to settle for silver in the quad along with Annie Vernon, Flood and Houghton.

Grainger’s long-awaited golden moment finally arrived at London 2012 as she won an emotional Olympic title with Watkins in the double. That was the second gold of the regatta for GB’s women, following on from that unforgettable breakthrough success by Glover and Stanning in the pair.

And there was more success to come at Eton Dorney as Kat Copeland and Sophie Hosking secured a first-ever medal for GB’s lightweight women – gold in the double scull to the delight of the home crowd.

Pioneering the way for these achievements were the first British female Olympic rowers back at the Montreal Games in 1976. Linda Clark and Beryl Crockford (nee Mitchell) – who sadly passed away recently – raced in the pair, finishing tenth, while Gillian Webb, Pauline Bird-Hart, Clare Grove, Diana Bishop and cox Pauline Wright were eighth in the coxed four.

All women’s races were over 1km at that stage and it wasn’t until the Seoul Games of 1988 that the racing distance was doubled to match the men’s competition.

The current women’s Olympic programme – pair, eight, single, double, quad and lightweight double – was first established at the Atlanta 1996 Games but there are proposals for it to be expanded in Tokyo 2020 as part of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) drive to implement gender participation equality across all sports.

Forty per cent of the 550 rowers that competed at the Rio 2016 Olympics were female, the highest level yet, and that would increase to 50-50 should the new, gender-balanced Olympic rowing programme be introduced. That will be voted on in February 2017 during an Extraordinary Congress of FISU, World Rowing’s governing body.

The Paralympic Games already has gender participation equality, with two of the four boat classes made up of mixed crews – the legs-trunk-arms mixed coxed four and the trunk-arms mixed double sculls.

The recent Rio 2016 Games saw all four British women rowers return with gold medals after magnificent performances – indeed, including the para-canoeists, every GB woman who competed on the Lagoa that week was crowned as champion.

Pamela Relph became the first woman to successfully defend a Paralympic rowing title as she, Grace Clough, Daniel Brown, James Fox and cox Oliver James claimed mixed coxed four victory in style. She had been joined in the winning boat four years earlier in London by Naomi Riches, David Smith, James Roe and cox Lily van den Broecke.

The two other Rio rowing champions had previously represented their country in other sports – Lauren Rowles, a track athlete until just 18 months before Rio, dominated the TA mixed double sculls final with Laurence Whiteley, while Rachel Morris produced a remarkable surge through the field to win the arm-shoulders women’s single scull.

Morris had been crowned as Paralympic champion in hand-cycling at Beijing 2008, the Games that saw para-rowing make its Paralympics debut and Helene Raynsford make history by winning the first-ever arm-shoulders women’s single scull title. There were also bronze medals that year for Riches and Vicky Hansford in the mixed coxed four alongside Alastair McKean, James Morgan and cox Alan Sherman.

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“We knew we were capable of this in our heads and in our hearts but we still had to deliver it”, said Watkins.

Asked what it was like to finally be an Olympic Champion, Grainger said: “It’s very hard to put into words but it’s every bit as wonderful as you might think.”

Before that final the young GB men’s pair of Will Satch and George Nash had wowed the crowd with a bronze on their Olympic debuts.

“It shows if you do the training and you stick to the programme you can do it,” said Satch.

Whilst Grainger and Watkins were still letting it sink in, Alan Campbell won bronze in the men’s single scull – a medal at his third Games of trying in a race won by his friend Mahe Drysdale from New Zealand.

Much earlier the GB men’s quadruple scull of four-times Olympian Matt Wells, Stephen Rowbotham, Charles Cousins and Tom Solesbury produced a strong performance to hold onto fifth place in their final.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ROWERS?

Tomorrow sees the final day of rowing at the 2012 Games. Britain has three boats in action: the men’s four and the two lightweight men’s doubles.

Andrew Triggs Hodge, Peter Reed, Tom James and Alex Gregory are the men’s four and they race at 11.30.

Reed, Hodge and James are defending champions whilst Gregory and James are reigning world champions. They face a potentially tough race with Australia as the main opposition.

Kat Copeland and Sophie Hosking are the lightweight women’s double whose final is at 11.50. They rowed through the Greek World Champions in the semis to qualify for tomorrow’s final.

The final crew to race at the Olympic regatta for Great Britain will be the defending Beijing champions Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase in the lightweight men’s double scull. Their race starts at 12.10.

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Grainger and Watkins, who recorded an Olympic best time of 6:44.33, are now through to the final on Friday and the men’s four of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Tom James, Peter Reed and Alex Gregory will race a semi-final on Thursday.

“Part of me thought it would be good to see how fast we could go today and we certainly have more but the final is the big one,” said Grainger. “No-one will remember on Friday who won the heat. It’s a new job to do.”

Watkins added: “Today was a wonderful bonus and a fantastic confidence boost that we are on absolutely on track.”

The Team GB men’s eight were winners of a sparkling repechage in which the home combination produced a strong first half and then controlled the race to win in 5:26.85. Their final is on Wednesday.

The women’s quadruple scull of Beth Rodford, Melanie Wilson, Frances Houghton and Debbie Flood hauled themselves back from sixth place at halfway to qualify for Wednesday’s final in third place, with only four progressing.

GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner said: “We’ve had an excellent day today with the men’s four and the women’s double showing their standard in winning their heats and the men’s eight and women’s quad both qualifying for their A finals through the repechage.

“With all the heats completed we have placed ourselves in a strong position to step through the next rounds and gain more A final places in the next few days”.

Tomorrow’s race programme sees semi-finals for the men’s double scull and lightweight men’s four whilst the women’s eight will race a repechage in which four places for the final will be up for grabs.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ROWERS?

Tomorrow’s race programme starts at 09.30. The Team GB women’s eight, stroked by Vicky Thornley and coxed by Caroline O’Connor, will be the first in action for the home side at 10.50 in their repechage from which the top four progress to Thursday’s final.

Alan Campbell races his quarter-final of the men’s single scull at 11.10. A top-three finish would see him through to the semis on Wednesday.

Sam Townsend and Bill Lucas reached their semi of the men’s double, starting at 12.30 tomorrow, with a storming second place behind the New Zealanders who are World Champions in a very fast heat on Saturday.

Brothers Richard and Peter Chambers plus Chris Bartley and Rob Williams will feature in Team GB’s final race of the day at 12.40. They won their lightweight men’s four heat in style earlier in the programme and have avoided some of their big rivals – China, Denmark and South Africa – in tomorrow’s semis.

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