Olympics-Tokyo pain dissolves into Paris glory for British lightweight pair

By Philip O'Connor

PARIS (Reuters) - The agony of missing out on a podium place in Tokyo by one-hundredth of a second was finally washed away for the British lightweight sculls pair of Imogen Grant and Emily Craig on Friday as they won the gold medal in dominant fashion.

The victory was sweetened by the fact that it came in the last lightweight race in the Olympics, with the discipline being replaced by coastal rowing from 2028 onwards.

"I'm not going to be sad about being able to say that we are Olympic champions forever, from a selfish point of view," Craig said.

It is just over three years since they were edged out by the Netherlands crew of Marieke Keijser and Ilse Paulis, with only 0.01 of second separating them from the bronze medal, a finish that has haunted them ever since.

"If you told me after we crossed that line that the next three years were going to be what they were, then I would have laughed in your face. I am just overwhelmed that we are standing here, and we did it," Craig said.

Friday's final was entirely different to Tokyo as they controlled the race all the way through, finishing first ahead of Romania with more than a second and a half to spare.

"I think we just owned every stroke of that race, just so locked in. We knew if we raced the way we were capable of, then it would be gold," Grant said before revealing her emotions.

"Joy, relief, disbelief, tiredness, joy again, so much happiness and that feeling of a job well done."

For Craig, the Paris gold medal was a direct result of the Tokyo disappointment and the work they did to ensure it never happened again.

"There was so much muscle memory and the race plan over the last three years has kind of become gospel," she said.

"It kind of just speaks to how process-driven we are that we went out and we lived that process right until the end."

(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Toby Davis)