A LOCAL rower made no attempt to hide his disappointment of the men’s four rowing team after they finished fourth at the Olympics.

The quartet of Matthew Rossiter from Newbury, Oliver Cook, Rory Gibbs and Sholto Carnegie looked set for silver but the effort of chasing for gold cost them and they crashed into the Italian boat in a shambolic finish.

Matthew Rossiter said: “We tried our best but we really screwed up there at the finish so it’s a bit heartbreaking. There’s no sugarcoating it – we’re absolutely devastated.”

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On the collision with the Italians, he added: “In a coxless boat one rower will steer with their foot. It’s tough at the best of times, but it was choppy out there and, when your vision is going blurry and your body is going stiff with lactic acid, it’s sometimes hard to stay on the ball.

“In the heat of the moment we let concentration go. We fully biffed into the Italians. They are pretty p***ed off because maybe we cost them the silver and sorry to those guys. It’s an outdoor sport and this stuff happens. It’s just heartbreaking when it’s you and not something on YouTube.”

The disappointment followed fourth places in the men’s double sculls and the women’s four, but there was a significant silver lining in the very next race as Harry Leask, Angus Groom, Tom Barras and Maidenhead's Jack Beaumont finished second in the squad.

By contrast to the four, it was Britain’s first Olympic medal in the event, and Beaumont said: “We’re hugely proud. We’ve worked so hard. We’ve been part of a rowing team that’s had huge success, a huge tradition of British rowing.

“But, in our sculling team, there’s a tradition of being in the shadows a little bit. We’ve built on years of hard, hard work and near misses and I’m so proud to get this silver medal. It’s the start of a new history, and that’s awesome.”

They led at halfway before being overtaken by the Dutch but held off the Australians and the Polish to clinch silver.