Tokyo Olympics: Steve Redgrave believes China’s rowers can be best in world after hitting gold target
- Women’s quadruple sculls team win gold in world-record time, with another bronze in women’s eight
- Performance director Redgrave – five-time Olympic gold winner with Britain – thinks Tokyo Games ‘just a stepping stone to Paris’
There was no medal for China’s Jiang Yan in the single sculls final, but Steve Redgrave’s Chinese rowers delivered on Friday morning with a gold in the women’s quadruple sculls, and bronze in the women’s eight.
Three years on from five-time Olympic champion Redgrave joining up with the Chinese Rowing Association, the team of Chen Yunxia, Zhang Ling, Lyu Yang and Cui Xiaotong won in 6:05.13 at the Sea Forest Waterway.
Their time was more than five seconds ahead of France in silver, setting a new world record, and British icon Redgrave feels his charges can become the very best.
“China has the athletes, has the resources, has some of the know-how to be the strongest rowing nation in the world,” he said. “I was brought in to get them there. We’re sixth in the table so we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Redgrave believes the bronze medal won by the women’s eight team – consisting of Wang Zifeng, Wang Yuwei, Xu Fei, Miao Tian, Zhang Min, Ju Rui, Li Jingjing, and Guo Linlin, with Zhang Dechang as the cox – will also help inspire more people to take up rowing in the China.