Paralympics 2024: Lauren Rowles and Gregg Stevenson claim thrilling mixed sculls gold.

Great Britain’s Lauren Rowles and Gregg Stevenson left it late to claim a thrilling Paralympic gold in the mixed doubles sculls in Paris.

Aiming for Great Britain’s third successive Paralympic gold in the division, the pair trailed Chinese duo Lius Shuang and Jijan Jiang with 100m to go in the 2,000m event.

But the British duo timed their charge perfectly to snatch a dramatic victory with a time of eight minutes 20.97 seconds.

Shuang and Jiang, who led for the majority of the race, looked dejected as they finished 2.48 secs behind the British pair to claim silver, with Israel third.

The victory is Rowles’ third gold following wins in Tokyo in 2021 and Rio in 2016 with former partner Laurence Whiteley.

It was the second rowing victory of the day for Great Britain after Ben Pritchard won gold in the PR1 men’s singles skulls with a comeback win of his own.

The Welshman trailed Italy’s Giacomo Perini during the first 1500m of the 2,000m event.

But Pritchard started his charge with 500m to go and eased to victory in the home straight, finishing with a time of nine minutes 03.84 seconds.

Ukraine’s Roman Polianskyi pipped Perini at the finish to take silver, finishing more than 10 seconds behind Pritchard.

Pritchard’s victory was Britain’s first in the division since Tom Aggar’s gold at the 2008 Games in Beijing.