Great Britain’s Melanie Wilson thanks Hong Kong friends for their support in her Rio silver medal success
The 32-year-old Wilson is part of the crew that finishes second to the powerful United States and becomes the first women’s eights from Britain to win an Olympic medal
Melanie Wilson thanked her Hong Kong friends who supported her as she helped the Great Britain women’s eights team to a silver medal in the Rio Olympics rowing competition on Saturday.
The 32-year-old Wilson, who lived in Hong Kong until she was 18, was No 2 on the boat that came second to the powerful United States and became the first women’s eights crew from Britain to win an Olympic medal.
“I guess I’ve said it before, I’ve lived in London for a long time and proud to representing Britain but Hong Kong was definitely my home growing up and it’s given me so much and all the support from friends out there has been just incredible,” said Wilson.
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“I guess there’s a little part of Hong Kong in this silver medal as well.”
Wilson has previously said that intense swimming training under the late Captain Harry Wright at the Ladies Recreation Club in Hong Kong helped give her the discipline to make the sacrifices needed to succeed at rowing.
Great Britain were almost three seconds behind the Americans but had to fight to edge Romania into second place. The Romanians actually took the lead with about 100 metres to go but the British crew put one a final surge to claim silver.
Wilson said the crew’s coxen had informed the team that the Romanians were close.
“She said we were in the silver medal place and half a length behind gold and when the Romanians started coming up, we had 15 strokes so we’d better do something or otherwise we would be overtaken.”