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No gold for Grainger's crew
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There was disappointment for the women's quad of Katherine Grainger, Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton and Annie Vernon, who were beaten into second place in a desperately close race by a late charge from China.
The British foursome had entered the final as strong favourites having won the world championships for the past three years, and looked strong as they led virtually from the gun.
The advantage was almost a length entering the final 500 metres but the young Chinese quad started to claw back the deficit.
They poured on the pressure and seemed to draw closer with every stroke, and it was clear from some way out that that the British dream of gold was over as the locals cheered their crew to victory.
For Grainger, stroke of the boat, it was a third successive Olympic silver medal having also finished second in the quad in 2000 and in the pair with Cath Bishop four years ago.
"It is going to be hard coming to terms with another silver," said Grainger. "We always said that silver wouldn't be good enough for us.
"I am so proud to race with this crew, we felt so strong in the last 500 but we just weren't able to latch it together. Most of the race we were the best crew, but not at the end."
