Olympics: British Rowers Feel the Pain of Coming Second

There were two distraught crews among the British rowing squad today, and both of them had won silver medals. The expectations within the team had become so high that both the women's quadruple scull and the men's eight were devastated by an afternoon that they regarded as a failure. Rarely can such success have provoked such misery.

Hardest hit was Katherine Grainger, senior member of the quad. Grainger has now won silvers at three consecutive Games, making her the most successful female British rower in history. This medal, she said, was the hardest to accept of the three. "I think we're all devastated, I'm proud of what we've done in the last few years, but the gold was what we came for. We've failed to meet our own standards. We always said that silver wouldn't be good enough for us."

Shortly after saying those words, Grainger broke down in tears. She was consoled by the embrace of her mother. Her crewmate, Annie Vernon, was also crying. "I feel so empty, "If we can't do it now, when will we do it," she said. For Vernon, 25, the answer to that question may well be at London 2012. But for Grainger, 32, this might prove to have been her last chance to win the gold she so desires. She refused to consider her future, saying only that her plans had stretched as far as winning gold and no further.

Whereas the women's quad were overtaken by the Chinese in the final 200 meters of the race, the men's eight trailed the gold medalists Canada throughout. It didn't make the defeat any easier to take.

"It wasn't the result we were hoping to get," said Acer Nethercott, cox of the men's eight, moments after stepping out of the boat. "It's bizarre, the rational side of my brain is saying 'I can't be upset with a silver' but the emotional side is still very raw, because we were capable of winning gold. But we didn't get a clean start so we were always chasing the race. There's always things you could have done better but when you come away with silver not gold those questions are going to haunt you for a while.

"My rational side has got to wrest control because I'm probably only going to stand on an Olympic medal podium once in my life, so I've got to make sure I enjoy it."

David Tanner, performance director of UK rowing, pointed out that the reactions of both the eight and the quad were an indication of just how strong the squad has become. "This may sound strange, but a big positive is that we've seen guys win silver medals, and they're far from ecstatic about it. That's a strong sign of what we're aiming for," he said.

If this squad, the most successful in Britain's Olympic history, needed any extra motivation for 2012, they have found it in the silver medals they won at Shunyi today.