On Saturday Staffordshire rower Anna Bebington

won an Olympic bronze medal in the Women's Double Sculls. The

1. ​

   Anna Bebington and Elize Laverick

Sentinel's Mike Sassi was in the crowd.

 

 

The hundreds of Brits among the 30,000 or so fans at the

Shunyi Olympic Rowing Park had been hoping to cheer at least

three British medal winners during Saturday's seven finals.

 

But by the time that Longsdon Olympian Anna Bebington took to

the water in the fifth big race of the day we were still

waiting to see Team GB reach the podium.

 

Mercifully, the stifling foggy haze of earlier in the week had

lifted to reveal a stunning blue sky, with snow-capped

mountains rising into the distance.

 

However the temperature guage showed that even at five o'clock

in the afternoon local time, the flag-waving crowds in the

open-topped stands were sweltering under the 30-degree

heat of the sun.

 

Two kilometres away in the distance, the six boats on the

starting line were dots on the horizon. The British fans had

massed at the end of the course, near the finishing post. They

roared as images of Anna and her partner Elise Laverick flashed

up on the huge screen on the river bank opposite.

 

The noise even managed to drown out the singing of the

Norwegian fans - all decked out in Viking helmets and capes -

still celebrating an earlier success.

 

A clutch of former British Olympic rowing champions were in the

crowd, among them Athens gold medallist Ed Coode. He reckoned

it was crucial that the British pair had a good start.

 

"Anna and Elise are fine rowers - but they need to be

aggressive right from the off," he said.

 

"It's not really their style. But they probably need to be more

aggressive than they have ever been before.

 

"If they don't make a good start then it will be difficult for

them to come back. When you're rowing backwards it's hard to

catch up with opponents that you can't see!

 

"You can't win a race in the first 500 metres - but you can

certainly lose it."

 

So when the big screen showed the GB boat in third place after

the first quarter of the race, we knew that our Anna was in

with a shout.

 

The New Zealand boat was out in front, with the Germans in

second place. But there were only fractions of seconds between

them, Britain and China.

 

The noise levels in our stand dropped at 1,000 metres as Anna

and Elise momentarily went fourth. Then the pitch rose again

when the British pair nudged second spot.

 

It was a fantastic race - easily the best of the day so far.

Earlier disappointments were forgotten. This was what the

British fans had travelled half way round the world to see.

 

The bikes of the rowing coaches who follow their crews on a

tarmac track by the waterside, came into view. Fans were

standing on their seats.

 

The boats were now directly in front of us - less than 20 yards

away. The crowd screamed its support. There were Union flags

everywhere. "C'mon Anna!"

 

For one ecstatic moment it looked like she was going to grab

the silver medal. But the German boat manged to hang on.

 

The big screen showed that the British bronze medal-winning

performance was only two tenths of a second behind that of the

New Zealand boat which won gold.

 

It was Britain's first rowing medal of the Beijing Olympics.

And former Westwood High School pupil Anna Bebington was one

half of the crew that won it.

 

Anna's mum and dad Caroline and Richard were also waterside,

cheering their daughter on. After the race, Caroline said: "She

had a brilliant race. I knew Anna was on good form - and very,

very focused.

 

"They had to work hard to keep up at the start. But they did it

- and managed to hold something back for the end. At the finish

it was so close.

 

"Now we're all proud. Very, very proud!"

 

Half an hour later, when Anna and Elise rowed by with their

medals on a lap of honour, the crowd was celebrating the gold

medal performance of the British men's fours boat.

 

The talk among the more knowledgable fans was that 25-year-old

Anna could upgrade her bronze medal for a gold of her own, at

London 2012.

 

So far she has been wary of committing herself to another four

years of solid slog in the quest for Olympic gold.

 

But Ed Coode, who knows a thing or two about Olympic golds,

believes she should seriously consider carrying on.

 

He said: "If she wants it enough, it's there for the

taking."

"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," said Bebington, reflecting on the close

finish. "We're absolutely over the moon, it's amazing."