Tokyo Olympics: Women’s pair rowers win New Zealand’s first gold medal of the Games – Stuff.co.nz

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Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler of New Zealand celebrate winning the gold medal in the women's pair at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler have won New Zealands first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics.

On Friday, they'll seek to win a second.

The New Zealand women's pair rowers claimed gold in their A final at the Sea Forest Waterway on Thursday, heading home the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and Canada.

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Kerri Gowler, left, and Grace Prendergast hug after winning the gold medal for New Zealand in rowing's women's pair at Sea Forest Waterway.

It was New Zealand's fourth medal of the Games to date after triathlete Hayden Wilde captured bronze on Monday, and women's double scullers Brooke Donoghue and Hannah Osborne and the men's rugby sevens team gained silver on Wednesday.

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The New Zealanders trailed Canada for the first half of the 2000m race before moving to the front in the third quarter. They staved off a surprise challenge from the ROC duo of Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia by 1.26 seconds, winning in a time of 6min 50.19sec.

Asked for her initial reaction, Prendergast told Sky TV: Honestly, I don't really know at the moment.

It's such a whirlwind, such a dream, but I'm just so stoked I'm just so happy.

RICKY WILSON/STUFF

Sally Prendergast went through every emotion under the sun as she nervously watched her daughter race for Olympic gold.

Gowler said: Same I can't believe it. I feel like we crossed the line and I just started yelling, Have we done it? But it's amazing. I'm so glad we've done it.

We crossed and I was like, 'Was someone ahead of us? I don't know, I was so focused on us ... I was like, 'Did we do it?' Honestly, I can't believe it.

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Sally Prendergast, left, reacts to her daughter's gold medal win in Thursday afternoon's double sculls final.

Prendergast added: I'm just so stoked; it's been such a good season. Regardless of the result today, I was stoked with how our season went, but it's always a cherry on the top when you finish on top.

Gowler saluted their supporters, saying: It's been a long five years, and I'm really gutted that everyone can't be here with us. But, yeah, I'm just really glad you're there to support us, and we hope we did you proud.

It was New Zealand's first Olympic gold medal in the women's pair. It completed a full set after Lynley Hannen and Nikki Payne took bronze in 1988 in Seoul, Juliette Haigh and Rebeca Scown took bronze in 2012 in London, and Genevieve Behrent and Scown claimed silver in 2016 in Rio.

Prendergast and Gowler, who were dual world champions in 2019, are also part of the New Zealand women's eight who will contest their final on Friday afternoon (NZ time) as the duo seek a rare rowing double-gold return in Tokyo.

New Zealand women's single sculler Emma Twigg will contest her semifinal at 1:50pm on Thursday as she continues her quest for a first Olympic medal at her fourth Games.

more to come

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Tokyo Olympics: Women's pair rowers win New Zealand's first gold medal of the Games - Stuff.co.nz