A woman who lives in Sussex has won gold for Great Britain.

Emily Craig, who lives in Mark Cross, near Crowborough, won the gold with her teammate Imogen Grant in the lightweight women’s double sculls at Paris 2024.

Craig and Grant finished just 0.01 seconds off the podium and 0.5 seconds from gold in Tokyo three years ago, with the 31-year-old Grant keeping a picture of the photo finish on her living room wall as inspiration.

It has certainly worked as they are unbeaten during this Olympiad and delivered on their status as pre-race favourites to win by 1.72 seconds from the Romanian pair Gianina van Groningen and Ionela Cozmiuc.

Craig, 31, was in tears after the race finished this morning. The title they fought for is now theirs forever, with this the last time the event is due to be part of an Olympic Games.

READ MORE: Sussex athletes eyeing up medals ahead of Paris Olympics

Although slightly slow at the start, the British pair nosed in front after 400 metres and had opened up a one-second lead by the mid-point of the race, finding clear water to give themselves a cushion to hold off the late Romanian sprint.

Cambridge University Boat Club and University of London Boat Club both congratulated the Olympic champions, with the former praising their “dominant display of lightweight rowing” and the latter posting on Instagram: “They’ve only gone and done it”.

Matthew Griffiths, Grant’s fiance, was one of her first novice rowing coaches at the University of Cambridge where they met around ten years ago while the Olympian was studying medicine.

“She accelerated her own career and kind of left me behind there but we stayed together,” he said ahead of the Games.

He continued on a more serious note: “I’ve seen her entire journey from novice to Olympian.

“It’s also been an immense privilege to be able to see what that journey looks like.

“If you’re doing a medical degree at Cambridge at the same time, it’s quite difficult to do everything well but it’s one of her great strengths.”