Stiller becomes first Beijing “winner”

GB Rowing’s Tina Stiller became the first "winner" on the 2008 Olympic rowing course at Shunyi today when she took first place ahead of team-mate Alice Freeman in the women’s single scull race for team reserves.

For Stiller and Freeman today saw the added "fun" of practising the medal ceremony for the Games’ organisers with medal-giving, flag raising and "God Save the Queen".

The single scull race, and those of the other reserves, double up as a technical rehearsal for the Games’ broadcasters. For the sport of rowing pictures are being provided to the Beijing Olympic Broadcasters by BBC personnel. Today’s races provided the first, dramatic images from the ground-breaking "fly-wire camera" suspended on a thin wire above the lake to track the final few hundred metres of each race.

GB’s other reserves in action today were Tom Parker and Alex Gregory in the men’s pair and Rob Williams in the lightweight men’s single scull.

RESULTS

OPEN

WOMEN

Single scull

1. Tina Stiller (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:23.14
2. Alice Freeman (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:23.14
3. Juliane Domscheit (GERMANY) 8:41.71
4. Australia (DNS)

MEN

Pair

1. Australia 7:01.60
2. Germany 7:03.63
3. China 7:05.71
4. Australia 7:08.74
5. Alex Gregory/Tom Parker (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:11.91
6. Piotr Buchalski/Maciej Mattik (Poland) 7:30.05

LIGHTWEIGHT

MEN

Single scull

1. Rob Williams (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:42.80
2. Dong Tianfeng (China) 7:54.28
3. Ross Brown (Australia) 7:55.78
4. John Sasi (Canada) 8:00.14
5 Jeremy Pouge (France) 8:03.76
6. Arnoud Greidanus (Netherlands) 8:06.85