Surbiton's Moe Sbihi wins Olympic Bronze medal

Moe Sbihi from Surbiton won an Olympic bronze medal yesterday after sacrificing silver going all out for gold in a thrilling men's eight final at London 2012. 

 

The British men's eight also took a medal today - a bronze – after a gutsy row in which they took the race to the unbeaten Germans in the first half but did not have enough to hold on to the line, leaving Canada to take silver from a fast finish.

 

The British men's eight had a herculean task. Germany, their key rivals were unbeaten in the past four years and were three times world champions.  So it was decidedly brave of the GB combination to take the race to the Germans from the outset.

 

The famous Deutsche Achter had a lead at 500m but only a small one.  GB were in close contention and kept pushing on through 1000m where they led briefly and, with a renowned faster finish the GB boat looked in a good position.

 

As the line approached it became clear though that the Germans had another surge within them. They moved through to take the gold whilst Canada came up quickly to take silver.

 

Constantine Louloudis, Matt Langridge, Tom Ransley, James Foad, Ric Egington, Alex Partridge, Moe Sbihi, Greg Searle and cox Phelan Hill could feel proud of what they achieved.

 

"We wanted to win. We took a risk. That's why we got bronze not silver", said Sbihi.

 

"In the final 250m I had nothing left to give, my legs had gone and I just hoped that the other seven had something left as I didn't. I certainly went to the limit", said Constantine Louloudis.

 

"I feel proud of the way we raced today even if disappointed with the result.  We all said we wanted to be able to look ourselves in the mirror afterwards and I believe we can. We really took the race to them in the first part of the race and although we did not have enough in the final 500m to hold on we are still proud of the input if not the result".

 

London 2012 Olympic Games regatta

Men's Eight Result

1. Germany 5:48.75

2. Canada 5:49.98

3. Great Britain 5:51.18

4. United States 5:51.48

5. Netherlands 5:51.72

6. Australia 5:51.87

 

Our congratulations go out to Moe for a magnificent effort in securing his medal for Team GB.