Rio 2016: Bond and Murray continue men's pair dominance

The pair claimed New Zealand's first gold of the Games and made it 69 races unbeaten with a comfortable triumph, surging clear in the second 1000 metres at Lagoa.

Bond and Murray finished 2.80 seconds clear of South Africa's Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling, with the Italian duo of Giovanni Abagnale and Marco Di Costanzo taking the bronze.

While Bond and Murray's victory was relatively straightforward, there was a thrilling finish in the women's double sculls as Poland's Magdalena Fularczyk-Kozlowska and Natalia Madaj overhauled Great Britain's Katherine Grainger and Victoria Thornley to win by just 0.95secs.

The men's double sculls saw brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic hold off Lithuanian pair Mindaugas Griskonis and Saulius Ritter for gold, while the men's and women's quadruple sculls titles each went to Germany.

Switzerland were victorious in the lightweight men's four, beating out Denmark and France.

HIGHLIGHT

Bond and Murray were very much headline act, but the race of the day came in the women's double sculls. Grainger and Thornley led for more than three quarters of the course, but it was Fularczyk-Kozlowska and Madaj who had the most left in the closing stages.

Grainger can at least console herself with a silver that makes the 40-year-old, who won gold in 2012 and then opted to come out of retirement in 2014, the most decorated British female Olympian in history with five medals. She confirmed after the race that she would not be back in 2020.

QUOTES OF THE DAY

"For many, many days nobody thought we'd come back with anything. I don't like leaving empty-handed. It feels pretty nice to walk away from this one with another shiny medal in my pocket." - Katherine Grainger was more than happy with silver despite failing to defend her title.

"This is the most amazing race. It was really hard but we did it. This is our time, this is our race." - Poland's Magdalena Fularczyk-Kozlowska describes her emotions after winning gold.

"I think we are coming home in 12 days and my father will still be drunk." - Valent Sinkovic expects his Dad to celebrate the gold won by the Croatian siblings for a long time.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The British women's pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, who are unbeaten since 2011, eased to victory in their semi-final and will aim to complete a successful title defence in Friday's final.

Golds are also up for grabs in the men's and women's lightweight double sculls and the men's four.