Team GB star Helen Glover narrowly misses out on historic third Olympic gold as women’s

Helen Glover had to content herself with silver after Team GB were narrowly pipped to the post by the Netherlands in the women’s four final on Wednesday. 

The 38-year-old was on the cusp of making history as the first British woman to win three Olympic rowing golds, with the boat going into the race as the favourite. 

But the Netherlands – the current world champions – kept a tight lead for much of the race to claim gold, with New Zealand winning bronze. 

Team GB were measured getting off the mark, and looked steady in second as they kept close tabs on the Dutch boat. 

The final 500m saw Glover – along with team-mates Esme Booth, Sam Redgrave, and Rebecca Shorten – push forward into the lead briefly, but a strong showing from their closest rivals saw them snatch victory at the very last, and break British hearts. 

Team GB narrowly missed out on claiming gold in the women’s four final on Thursday morning

Led for much of the race by a confident Dutch team, Helen Glover and Co were unable to push past the Netherlands

Glover (right) said after the race that the team had put everything into their Paris performance

‘I think the thing that I’ve learnt is that the most frustrating thing is to look back and think about what we could have done differently,’ Glover reflected after the race. 

‘We left it all out there. 

‘We can’t have regret if you’ve done everything that you can.’ 

‘No matter how we do, those are the people we go back to that love us,’ Glover added, paying tributes to the crowds supporting in Paris. 

‘We couldn’t be more proud of the people that have come along – from ex-team-mates, to people who have just started following us.’