London 2012 Olympics: Sir Steve Redgrave anticipates more glory

SIR Steve Redgrave hailed an historic day for rowing after Helen Glover and Heather Stanning’s Olympic gold and predicted there will be more to come.

Redgrave, who was at Eton Dorney yesterday working for BBC television, also strongly defended the men’s rowing eight including Greg Searle claiming they had sacrificed a “safe silver” in a bid to land gold.

Glover – a product of the Sporting Giants programme headed by Redgrave to find tall people with sporting ability for activities like rowing and handball – and Stanning became the first British women ever to become Olympic rowing champions when they triumphed in the women’s pairs.

Redgrave said: “It’s an historic day for British rowing, the first ever women’s gold medal in the Olympics and it won’t be the last.”

That was a reference to Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins in the double sculls tomorrow, while he was full of praise for the men’s eight including 40-year-old Searle who pushed Germany all the way before the scale of their effort saw them overtaken on the line and have to settle for bronze.

Asked if that was a disappointment, Redgrave added: “No – no disappointment.

“The eight made the decision to go for gold. They could have played it safe and won silver, but they made the Germans – who have won every race and regatta they have been in – win that gold.

“I watched their faces and at halfway there were two guys in the German eight who were struggling. They put them through the mill.

“Our guys made them go out and win that race.”

Redgrave admitted he was surprised someone from the Sporting Giants programme had won gold already.

“I always thought that gold in London would be hard,” he said. “There are a lot more from that programme in the under-23s and will be the base of the team in four years’ time.”