It made for extraordinary viewing, hijacking what was a thrilling finish, but the worst case scenario was avoided when the Brits began to realise they were travelling in the wrong direction and corrected before disaster struck.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
"The British crew start to row into the Italians and almost hit oars. They didn't hit but it was very close," a commentator on the coverage said.<\/p>\n
Had the Brits continued into the Italian crew's lane a protest would almost certainly have been lodged, although it is unlikely that it would have had an impact on Australia's finishing position, given how late in the race it happened, with the winners well clear of the bizarre distraction.<\/p>\n
Great Britain had won the event at every Olympics since 1996, after Australia's Oarsome Foursome dominated in Atlanta and Barcelona.<\/p>\n
The win for Australia doubled its haul of Olympic rowing gold medals for the morning<\/a>, occurring just minutes after the Aussie women claimed their gold.<\/p>\n Australia crossed the line to claim the Olympic<\/a> record in a time of five minutes 42.76 seconds.<\/p>\n Romania finished strong to take the silver medal while Italy crossed in third, with Great Britain coming home in fourth.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n