A Preston rower has failed to achieve a medal during the double sculls rowing at the Tokyo Olympics today.

A former rugby union player, Graeme Thomas and his rowing partner John Collins placed fourth in the competition.

France’s Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias secured the gold, the Netherlands’ Melvin Twellaar and Stef Broenink won silver, and China’s Liu Zhiyu and Zhang Liang received the bronze.

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The British team were admittedly disappointed with the result, having previously failed to medal at Rio 2016. But although they failed to close the gap on the Chinese team, they did manage to push them to the wire.

Speaking to Eurosport, Thomas said: “Physically, there’s nothing left out there for sure. I’m really disappointed, obviously. Fourth is the worst result we’ve had in this double.”

Collins said: “Pretty gutted with the result. In Rio, we weren’t really a feature of that race.

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“We were hanging out the back of it and then managed to reel the French in there at the last possible moment. Not that it’s much consolation, but at least we featured in this race and put up a fight.

“It’s a very different race even though the results aren’t much different. Some consolation but pretty gutted, that’s for sure.”

After Thomas started rowing when he was 20, he was scouted by the GB Rowing Team Start talent identification and development programme.

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When travelling to compete with the quadruple sculls team at the Rio Olympics, Thomas fell ill with a fever and was unable to take part.

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