Rio 2016 Olympics: Katherine Grainger and Victoria Thornley miss out to Polish duo in double sculls

ByEurosport

Updated 11/08/2016 at 16:24 GMT

Britain's Katherine Grainger and Victoria Thornley missed out on gold in the final of the women's double sculls, as Polish duo Magdalena Fularczyk-Kozlowska and Natalia Madaj claimed the title.

Silver medalists Victoria Thornley (GBR) of United Kingdom and Katherine Grainger (GBR) of United Kingdom, gold medalists Magdalena Fularczyk (POL) of Poland and Natalia Madaj (POL) of Poland and bronze medalists Lithuania.

Image credit: Eurosport

Grainger had come out of retirement to take part in the race and was fancied to win gold.

But while they lead for the first three-quarters of the race, the British pair flagged in the final 500m to miss out.

That left Fularczyk-Kozlowska and Madaj to claim gold, the British pair silver, and Milda Valciukaite and Donata Vistartaite of Lithuania bronze.

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Silver will be a disappointment in some ways for Grainger, given her stellar career.

But after a terrible season she and Thornley were outsiders, and have every right to hold their heads up high for turning things around to claim a medal.

Katherine Grainger and Victoria Thornley

Image credit: Reuters

The nail-biter saw the two boats neck-and-neck for much of the race. Britain led Poland by just 0.64 seconds at the halfway mark and appeared poised to win.

But the gritty Poles never gave up and found an extra burst of power with the finishing line in sight. They clocked 7 minutes 40.10 seconds, 0.95 ahead of Grainger and Thornley.

Grainger had won the gold medal in London in 2012 with Anna Watkins. Grainger's silver on Thursday was her fifth medal in five Olympics.

Final result

1. Poland Magdalena Fularczyk/Natalia Madaj 7 minutes 40.10 seconds
2. Britain Victoria Thornley/Katherine Grainger 7:41.05
3. Lithuania Donata Vistartaite/Milda Valciukaite 7:43.76
4. Greece Aikaterini Nikolaidou/Sofia Asoumanaki 7:48.62
5. France Helene Lefebvre/Elodie Ravera-Scaramozzino 7:52.03
6. U.S. Meghan O'Leary/Ellen Tomek 8:06.18

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