Tokyo 2020 Flash Quotes: Day 0 Rowing

Comments from Team GB rowers after today’s events at the Sea Forest Waterway.      Victoria Thornley Age: 33 Hometown: Wrexham Result: Won Heat 4 in a time of 7:44.30 to qualify for the Women’s Singles Sculls quarter-final on Monday On the heat "It's obviously hot but I felt cool on the start line, which is good. We all knew it was going to be like this. The conditions are pretty similar to what they were in training." On racing in the single sculls "Coming to the Olympics in the single has been a dream of mine for some time, so it's good to be out there doing what I love." John Collins Age: 32 Hometown: Twickenham Result: Second in Heat 3 in 6:12.80 to qualify for the Men’s Double Sculls semi-final on Sunday, with Graeme Thomas     On the conditions     "I'd say they're tricky. Tough would be an exaggeration, we train at Thames Valley and it's always windy there, it's an absolute miracle if it's not. "In some respects, it's really nice that the wind can be this strong and the water stays very row-able. "I remember thinking back to Rio, a butterfly flapped its wings and one side of the lake and it was unrow-able on the course. This is a bit of a relief in that respect."     On the race     "We were perhaps a little bit frustrated with our performance. We perhaps didn't row as well as we could have done, and I think part of that was that we didn't get ourselves into the race as well as we should have done. "Had we done a better start, which we are capable of doing, we would have taken the pressure off ourselves and made life a bit easier. "The beauty of an Olympic format is that you've got a bit of time to fix these things and make changes. "I was saying to Vicky Thornley after our race, in 2016 me and Jonny [Walton] didn't qualify from our heat but in the semi-final, we were pushing the Sinkovic pair [Croatia's Martin and Valent, Rio gold medallists] in the last 500m. "Anything can happen and we're both very good at learning from our errors."     Graeme Thomas Age: 32 Hometown: Preston Result: Second in Heat 3 in 6:12.80 to qualify for the Men’s Double Sculls semi-final on Sunday, with John Collins     On the temperature     "It's been a little bit of a shock to the system, it's always a difficult one with getting the air conditioning right back in the room. "How cold do you want it? You can get a little bit light-headed going from the cold to the hot. "My first World Cup with the team was in Munich, that was 36, 37 [degrees], so I'm not unfamiliar with hot conditions."     On competing at Tokyo having missed Rio with illness     "It's very emotional, to be honest. Liz, the physio, was the first one to give me a pat on the back and said 'congratulations'. "There were definitely some tears behind the sunglasses. I'm not going to lie, there's definitely been some anxiety in the few weeks leading up to this, especially with the COVID factor on top. "With it being a virus in 2016, that really does exacerbate the fear of something going wrong again. "It's a big relief to get that out of the way. Now I can call myself an Olympian, and the job is to win a medal for Team GB with John. "It's nice to get that milestone out of the way after all these years.”     Jack Beaumont Age: 27 Hometown: Maidenhead Result: Third in Heat 1 in 5:42.01, progressing through to the Men's Quad Sculls Repechage on Sunday, with Tom Barras, Angus Groom and Harry Leask     On the heat     "There has been a lot of talk about the temperature and a lot of talk about the humidity, but we train in all sorts of conditions at home. "I wouldn't say this is any hotter than a really hot day at home. "We've done a lot to manage it and we have our cooling strategies, but that's at the back of our mind when we're racing. "At the forefront is the job at hand and getting from start to finish as quickly as possible."     On the Olympic Games     "At a lot of the competitions we go to, different people are at different cycles in their training. "Everyone plans to peak here at the Olympic Games. "I think the most exciting thing is that everyone has managed to get here, the organisation and everything has been put in place to make this happen and make it happen safely. "It's just exciting to be part of Team GB and to be here.” Hannah Scott Age: 22 Hometown: Coleraine Result: Third in Heat 1 in 6:20.80, progressing through to the Women's Quad Sculls Repechage on Sunday, with Lucy Glover, Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne and Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne. On the race "I was ready to go. It was good to get the first race done and get the nerves out. We learned a lot of things from that race and hopefully deliver something better on Sunday." On conditions "There's wind, there's heat, there's choppy water. There's a lot going on out there. It's salty, as well, which changes the feel of it. There are a lot of different factors for us but nothing we can't adapt to. "The more races you get down the course, because of the variable conditions, it will be good to feel them over and over again." On strength of field in their heat "For us, we knew what we were going into in that heat. It was a tough heat, but we were in the mix, in the dogfight, and unfortunately didn't get the right side of it today. It doesn't mean a lesson wasn't learned. "Hopefully we can do it the right way moving forward. I'm not upset about it, we'll just keep stepping on. There's enough time between races that we can change things and get things right. "We don't need to change a lot, just to keep improving and there's a lot of time there to be stepping onwards." 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