Tokyo Olympics: Team GB seal a bronze medal in the men’s eight

Team GB seal a bronze medal in the men’s eight at the Tokyo Olympics as they miss out on silver by just 0.13 seconds in a breathtaking battle as New Zealand hold off Germany to claim gold

  • Team GB pulled off a bronze medal in the men’s eight and came close to silver  
  • They missed out on second place by just 0.13 seconds behind Germany 
  • New Zealand claimed gold in an exciting race that could have gone either way 

Great Britain’s men’s eight team produced an outstanding performance to take bronze in the regatta’s final event.

They were not considered to be realistic medal challengers, but it proved an outstanding display by Josh Bugajski, Jacob Dawson, Tom George, Mohamed Sbihi, Charles Elwes, Oliver Wynne-Griffith, James Rudkin and Tom Ford.

They finished third behind gold medallists New Zealand, with Germany taking second.

Team GB have claimed a bronze medal in the men’s eight with New Zealand sealing gold

It was Britain’s second medal of the Tokyo Olympics rowing regatta after a silver in the men’s quadruple sculls on Wednesday.

Wynne-Griffith said: ‘Overall, we are very proud of the performance. We had a pretty up and down week, and we had some pretty honest conversations.

‘There have been a lot of fourth places on the team, a lot of near-misses, so it was good to be on the right side of one.’

And Sbihi added: ‘We feel like this week we haven’t been able to show ourselves properly, but today we got ourselves into the right position to challenge for a medal.’

It was an exciting race that could have gone either way with Britain close to a silver medal

It was an exciting race that could have gone either way with Britain close to a silver medal 

Britain ended the rowing regatta with just two medals – silver and bronze – and it is the first time since the 1980 Moscow Olympics that they have failed to win at least one gold.

It is almost a year since long-serving Jurgen Grobler, who oversaw some of British rowing’s greatest Olympic successes, left his post as head coach.

Sbihi added: ‘Winning is hard. When you have won, to keep it going is even harder sometimes. As a sport, we have underperformed – silver and bronze for a quite highly-funded sport within Team GB, we should be doing better.

Mohamed Sbihi (R) admitted Team GB should be doing better in rowing after head coach Jurgen Grobler departed

Mohamed Sbihi (R) admitted Team GB should be doing better in rowing after head coach Jurgen Grobler departed

‘Jurgen is a winner, he is a notorious winner, has bred winners, but we have a set-up that is like no other, and it is there for us to have risen up to the occasion.

‘Clearly, Jurgen knew how to elevate people, but then so do other coaches, and the coaches we have supporting us have really risen to the occasion in the past 12 months.

‘The athletes and coaches want to win. We are here to win, not to participate. The passion is there to win – we are not here to turn up, get our kit and go home.’ 

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