By Tom Degun in Singapore

August 18 - The British women’s junior rowing pair of Georgia Howard-Merrill and Fiona Gammond today became Youth Olympic Games champions with a phenomenal display at the Marina Reservoir here in Singapore.



Less than 24 hours after Jade Jones claimed Britain’s first ever medal at the inaugural Summer Youth Olympic Games by triumphing in the women’s -55kg taekwondo, Howard-Merrill and Gammond were flawless as a late charge secured them Britain’s second gold.

The pair finished in a time of 3min 28.60sec to finish ahead of Australia and Greece, who finished in 3:29.34 and 3:29.37 respectively.

The victory was somewhat of a surprise after the duo struggled with steering problems in their semi-final to only just qualify for the final by finishing third.

"We're so surprised, we never expected it at all," said Howard-Merrill.

"We came out of the semi-finals in such a bad state because we got the fifth-best time and nearly crashed into the Romanians but it all came together, it's so good."

"It was amazing, it was such a close race," added Gammond.

"It was such a close race and we're not used to close races like that. It was so exciting to have lots more competition."

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