Rowers Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George claimed silver in the men’s coxless pairs final at the Paris Olympics on Friday morning.
Wynne-Griffith, whose father Richard and grandfather Mike are from Welshpool, represented Great Britain in the final which they led until the last 30 metres when a resurgent Croatia surged home for glory.
The duo pushed hard from the start and held a narrow lead from Romania at halfway.
They looked as if they would hold in a frantic finish, but Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia took gold with a desperate burst to the line to win in six minutes 23.66 seconds – less than half a second in front of the British pair.
The rower, with family links to Powys, had to be content with a silver medal in a time of 6:24.11.
Wynne-Griffith, who like George was part of the GB men’s eight crew that won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, blamed himself for getting it wrong at the finish.
“I don’t know, I made a mistake on the line and that’s racing for you,” he said. “Olympic silver medallists, I’m so proud of what we did.
“We had a great start and had a great first 1500m honestly, just on the last four strokes it was a case of winning or losing unfortunately.
“I can’t fault the passion and grit and result that we’ve gone through as a pair and I’ve enjoyed the ride and every second of it.”
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George added: “I don’t think I want to watch that back it was so close. We did an awesome race and did exactly what we said we wanted to do and we’re proud of what we achieved. These things happen.
“A lot was made of us after the semi-finals and we came in as favourites. All season whenever we’ve won we’ve reminded ourselves that we’re going to be hunted and we tried to go well and we did, just three strokes short. I’m proud.”
They switched to the men’s pair after taking a year out to study at Cambridge and compete in the Boat Race.
Coming into the Games the pair were unbeaten in 2024, having won their first major title at the 2024 European Rowing Championships in April.
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