Helen Glover and Heather Stanning win second consecutive Olympic gold in women's coxless pair

Dominant Team GB rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning lived up to expectations by successfully defending their Olympic title in typically imperious fashion at Rio 2016. The experienced duo, who have not tasted defeat for an incredible five years, made a blistering start in the women's coxless pair final and withstood a bit of late pressure behind to cross the line in a time of 7:18.29.

New Zealanders Genevieve Behrent and Rebecca Scown eventually battled to claim silver, while Hedvig Rasmussen and Anne Andersen of Denmark took bronze.

That success was quickly followed up by a fifth straight rowing gold for Britain in the men's coxless four. Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, Constantine Louloudis and George Nash held a narrow lead over their Australian rivals at the halfway stage and impressively pulled clear to win in 5:58.61. Italy scooped bronze.

Earlier on at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, brothers and reigning European champions Gary and Paul O'Donovan won Ireland's maiden medal of the Games – and their first ever at the rowing regatta – by capturing silver in the men's lightweight double sculls.

French duo Jeremie Azou and Pierre Houin took gold and the Norwegian boat were third. London 2012 bronze medallist Alan Campbell, the first man to represent Northern Ireland at four Olympic Games, sadly missed out on a place in the men's single sculls final after finishing fourth in his semi.