Longsdon rower Anna Bebington and partner Elise Laverick

produced a storming surge to take the bronze medal in a

dramatic finish to the women’s doubles sculls.

The British pair emulated the Olympic bronze they won in Athens

and came so close to making it even better.

The missed out on gold by just 0.23 seconds with New Zealand

twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell successfully

defending their Olympic title but only by one hundredth of a

second from Germany’s Annekatrin Thiele and Christiane Huth

taking the silver.

For Laverick and Bebington it was reward for their perseverance

after disappointing in their heats but bouncing back in the

repechage to qualify for the final.

Their preparations had been disrupted in the winter when

Bebington contracted a protracted virus but they had won the

World Cup in Poznan, albeit in the absence of the Chinese, to

signal their challenge.

This time they came back strongly after lying fourth deep into

the race to power past the China crew and almost spring a major

surprise.

Anna Bebington said: "If you'd told us yesterday that we would

have been in a position where we might have won a silver medal

I would have laughed at you.

“I am over the moon,” she said. “We had a game plan and stuck

to it, we wanted to be in the pack when the sprint started at

the end because it is our strongest part.

“We got into a good rhythm and we gave it everything we had

unfortunately we were held off just at the end but we are

really pleased.

“It is a big relief if you had told us before the race we would

come away with an Olympic medal we would have been stoked –

it’s amazing.”