Gymnast twins Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova have said they are “so proud” of Bryony Page’s trampoline win, as Team GB notched up more gold medals on the seventh day of the Paris Olympics.
The trampolinist completed her set of Olympic medals with a gold, beaming up at the stands where Union flags were being waved wildly among the crowd.
Great Britain rank third in the medal table after a series of golds on Friday, with Imogen Grant and Emily Craig claiming first place in the lightweight women’s double sculls and Scott Brash, Harry Charles and Ben Maher winning gold in the jumping team final.
We watched her in Tokyo, she's had an incredible trampoline routine and she's got all three colours of the medals now and luckily this one's gold
Jennifer Gadirova
Jessica and Jennifer, who competed for GB at the Tokyo Games, said Page’s win was well deserved.
Jessica told the PA news agency: “We didn’t actually get to watch it but all our friends and family was texting saying, ‘Bryony has won gold’, and I was like ‘Oh my god, no way. That’s amazing’.
“Especially how she’s been in this cycle, it was definitely well deserved and we’re so proud of her.”
Her sister Jennifer added: “The same for me, we’re all so proud of her.
“We watched her in Tokyo, she’s had an incredible trampoline routine and she’s got all three colours of the medals now and luckily this one’s gold.
“We’re just so proud. She’s been going for so long, this is her third Olympics, and just amazing to top it off with a gold.”
The 19-year-olds do not train with Page but will often be at Lilleshall National Sports Centre at the same time as her and will have a catch-up when they bump into her there.
The sisters missed out on selection for the Paris Games due to injury, but have been watching GB compete in the gymnastics events whenever they can.
Grant and Craig celebrated an emotional win in front of their families and friends after Grant’s parents set up an “Emily and Imogen in Paris” WhatsApp group.
The two missed out on a spot on the podium at the Tokyo Games by one-hundredth of a second – an agonising moment which Craig has had a picture of on her wall ever since.
She was in floods of tears at the medal ceremony and the pair appeared to sing the national anthem loudly.
Cambridge University Boat Club and University of London Boat Club congratulated the Olympic champions, with the former praising their “dominant display of lightweight rowing” and the latter posting on Instagram: “They’ve only gone and done it.”
Matthew Griffiths, Grant’s fiance, was one of her first novice rowing coaches at the University of Cambridge where they met around 10 years ago while the Olympian was studying medicine.
“She accelerated her own career and kind of left me behind there but we stayed together,” he joked, speaking to PA ahead of the Games.
He continued on a more serious note: “I’ve seen her entire journey from novice to Olympian.
“It’s also been an immense privilege to be able to see what that journey looks like.
“If you’re doing a medical degree at Cambridge at the same time, it’s quite difficult to do everything well but it’s one of her great strengths.”
He still coaches rowing on a voluntary basis at Upper Thames Rowing Club in Henley, and called himself a “rowing nerd”, saying he and Grant “never run out of things to talk about there”.
The rower’s mother, Tracy, set off from the UK with Union flag painted nails and predicted she would be shouting “very loudly” while watching her daughter compete.
Before the Games, Grant said it was going to be “amazing” to have her loved ones watching her compete.
“My parents set up a WhatsApp group called Emily and Imogen in Paris,” she said.
“I know that that invite link has been sent around to a lot of people. It’s really exciting and it’s going to be amazing having everyone there.”
Earlier on Friday, Britons Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George took silver in the men’s pair – losing out to Croatia by less than half a second after leading for much of the race – and Ireland rowers Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan completed back-to-back Olympic titles in the lightweight men’s double sculls.
Wynne-Griffith and George went to school together at Radley College, Oxfordshire, and then studied at Yale and Princeton respectively, before linking up again at Cambridge University where they competed in the Boat Race.
Michael Gennaro, heavyweight crew head coach at Yale, trained Wynne-Griffith in the Olympian’s final year at the university.
He told PA: “I always felt like at practice and around the team Ollie always treated it like it was Olympic training.
“You could just tell that everything he did was at a high standard and he would have an off day and just getting really down on himself about it, and it’s like your off days are still pretty good, but he just wasn’t living up to his standard.
“You always knew that he had his eyes set on going to the Olympics and being a big-time oarsman and that’s just kind of how he carried himself.”
Mr Gennaro did not coach George but knew of him and his rowing at Princeton and described the teammates as “top notch”.
Away from Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, diving duo Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding came third in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard, with fellow GB divers, including Tom Daley, leaping to their feet in the stands after the final round.
Lois Toulson, who is in a relationship with Laugher, congratulated the pair with a message on her Instagram story: “What a team!! The best teammates anyone could ask for.”
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