Britain’s pursuit of a sixth straight Olympic gold in the coxless four went disastrously wrong when the team nearly crashed into rivals and finished out of the medals.
Britain had won gold in the event at the last five Olympics — a run started by Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster and James Cracknell in Sydney in 2000.
Matthew Rossiter, Oliver Cook, Rory Gibbs and Sholto Carnegie had looked set for silver behind Australia.
But erratic steering as they chased the gold saw them nearly smash into Italy’s boat in the adjacent lane and finish in fourth. Cook could not contain his emotions afterwards and said he had “screwed up a bit” with the steering.
He said: “I feel I screwed up a bit and as I was closing in at the end and taking big strokes at the end going for the line, I forgot the steering and that’s what cost us to be honest, cost us a medal.
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“All I can say is thank you to everyone who stayed up to watch tonight and I’m really sorry we’re not coming back with something. I’m really proud of these guys to get us through this season. I had Covid at the beginning of the year and to get here was not a given.”
Rossiter, 31, broke down in tears and said his illustrious predecessors would be “smug” about their failure. He added: “There’s no sugar-coating it — we’re absolutely devastated.”
