Marne looks delightful. Two English commentators with London accents; one, who sounds a lot like Danny Dyer but is actually Martin Cross, has all the goss from the village and knows about the lucky socks and how they pack a suitcase. The repercharge or row-off is a strange qualification process - allowing competitors another go to get into the final. In the second Women's Double Sculls Semi Final, the GB team have a brilliant row, but the Romanians come storming home to win. Norway burgle third and the Aussies are out, so don't expect to see that final shown on the television. As the athletes are introduced in their boats they have to make a decision as to whether to wave to the crowd or not - it's a thing.
The Women's Quadruple Sculls Final is one of the best events on the programme - not just because GBR win, but because the quality of the racing is so good and is described as 'one of the all-time great comeback finsihes'. One of the British crew - Georgina Brayshaw - made a comeback from a broken back and a coma after a horseriding accident. There's a bit of this going on. The Dutch rower, Marloes Oldenburg, is a member of the gold-winning Women's Four crew after breaking her back in a mountainbiking incident two years ago. Meanwhile, Martin Cross says of the Women's Double Sculls final (NZL/ROU/GBR), 'I don't know if we've got room for any more excitement.'
In the Men's Double Sculls, the position changes many times before Romania win and both stand up in the boat after they cross the line, which seems like showing off - I'm just jealous of the balance. The Women's Four is incredibly close with just 0.18 seconds separating the gold (NED) and silver (GBR) with NZL in third, while Team GB have a terrible start in the Men's Four but a solid middle to finish third (USA gold; NZL silver). In the Men's Pair, the Brits are burgled by the Croatians (the innappropriately-named Sinkovich brothers) as Tom George catches a crab in the final five strokes and come second by less than half a second. Switzerland come third, but Martin Cross speaks for many of us as he admits, "I wasn't even watching the bronze. Apologies." The Netherlands blitz the Women's Pair race and are imperious as they finish lengths ahead, before the Romanians (who win silver) have to sprint back to compete in other races.
This is the last time the lightweight double sculls will be in the Olympics, since being introduced in 1996. The men's is won by the Irish defending their gold from Tokyo, with shamrocks on their blades. Paul O'Donovan apparently has a most unusual thumb technique, but Martin Cross tells us he is "always one for the interviews", so I suppose he's full of details like that. He notes the difference between his training course at home and this one in Paris is that "it's the same length, but there's a big grandstand and a fancy paint job". They are very excited about having endured their last weigh-in and being taken out by the French lads for baguettes and wine. Meanwhile the Women's Lightweight Double Sculls (in which the rowers may not exceed 57kg) is won by Great Britain (Romania second and Greece third).
The Netherlands win the Women's Single Sculls by a boat length, while the Men's Single Sculls is delayed due to traffic and the fact that the competitors are still on the bus. When they do complete their race, Germany take gold (Oliver Zeidler is arguably the best sculler in the world) and AIN come second. This is a neutral athlete (mainly Russian or Belarussian) who is unable to comete for their country because that country is banned from the Olympics. In this case, Yauheni Zalaty (born in Belarus) was last with 500m to go, until a storming finish. No resting for the Romanians, as they are back in the Women's Eight and they win another gold - four were also in the Four; one was in the Pair; two in the Double Sculls - how's that for a maths question set up? And in the final event on the rowing programme, GBR win the Men's Eight, and clearly all my hard work yelling at the television screen has paid off.
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