The 1988 Olympic Games

Extract from Chapter XVI of A History of St Catherine's Rowing 1875-1999

[written by Joanne Gough]

21st September, 5:30 am

The coach sped through the pre-dawn darkness, complete with police escort flashing blue lights down the empty roads. This was it at last - the day the British Women's Coxed Four had a chance for a place in an Olympic final. Now we had to prove that we were capable of everything we'd dreamed and boasted about. Steve Gunn, our coach, was confident. I knew we were fast enough, but still the dread of failure sat in the back of my mind ...

8:20 am

At last we were getting the boat out to race and trying not to look at the Canadians and Poles on the next jetty. The Bulgarians, we knew, were too fast for us, and we had to come second of four to make the final. The boat went beautifully in the warm-up, as it had done every time we'd rowed in the last few weeks. In no time at all we were backing onto the starting gate.

Photo: Jo Gough (stroke) and Kate Grose, the GB women's coxless pair for the 1990 World Championships