Richard is blogging on the Guardian website and writes about the race they had in the heat on Sunday.
1 Down – 2 to Go
With the first race finished we are feeling slightly relieved. Most people will know that we have had a difficult world cup season, only getting a silver at the first world cup. For yesterdays race we put ourselves under a lot of pressure to perform well and that is what we did. On paper it looked as though we had the more difficult of the three heats with us coming up against China who are favourites to win.
It was a great race and even though we came away in second we are pleased with our result. It has helped our confidence but we know that we have a lot more to come. Robin Williams, our coach reminds us ‘we are in the business of winning’. We will not settle for that second place. Over the next couple of days we will look to step on and improve our rowing and our overall performance
It was a big moment for me yesterday, putting on the Olympic vest with the 5 rings on it was special. Not many people get to this point in the sporting careers. This is the highest point any rower can go to in their careers and I'm glad to be here in China, but I'm not settling for just taking part. We are out here to win and nothing else will be good enough for our crew.2 Golds and 1 bronze for team GB so far. The rowers are pulling out some quality performances all round. Hopefully we can keep up this winning trend and that the lightweight four can be a part of that.
