London Olympics rowing: South Africa takes gold in coxless fours

London: South African rowers pipped Britain and defending champions Denmark to gold at the Olympics in a thrilling lightweight coxless fours race here Thursday.

South Africa`s James Thompson, Matthew Brittain, John Smith and Sizwe Ndlovu, world silver medalists, completed the 2-km course in six minutes, 2.84 seconds. The British team of Peter Chambers, Rob Williams, Richard Chambers and Chris Bartley put in a strong finish but wavered at the last to claim the silver in 6:03.09. Denmark, going for their fourth Olympic title, had to settle for bronze after leading for most of the race, in 6:03.09, its quartet of Kasper Winther, Morten Jorgensen, Jacob Barsoe and Eskild Ebbesen suffering fatigue in the final strokes. IANS