Rowing pair win Olympic gold

Olympic hurdling champion Sally Gunnell has paid tribute to Heather Stanning and Helen Glover - who won Britain's first Olympic gold medals yesterday.

Speaking to Daybreak, she said: "When you are favourites there is massive pressure and they just dealt with it.

"They had a game plan, they knew exactly what they needed to do and they just stuck to it."

Olympic gold medal winner Heather Stanning has told Daybreak that she could be deployed to Afghanistan next year.

Fellow gold medallist Helen Glover also admitted to have stood on her tip-toes while being measured to reach the height requirement to join Steve Redgrave’s ‘sporting giants’ programme.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning have praised the efforts of their competitors this afternoon, shortly after becoming Britain's the first female Olympic rowing champions. They said they could not let themselves think they had won until they passed the finish line.

Heather Stanning said they were delighted and overwhelmed at being the first athletes from Team GB to win a gold medal, and the attention they have received. They are confident they have won "the first of many."

Colleagues of Captain Heather Stanning celebrated her gold medal in Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. Stanning and her partner Helen Glover won Team GB's first gold medal this morning.

Her army colleagues, who sent her a good luck message before the event, said she had achieved a "magnificent result."

The parents of Helen Glover have been describing the sort of sacrifices she's had to make to become a gold medal winning Olympian. Speaking to ITV News her dad said even her boyfriend doesn't go near her when he has a cold.

The first British athletes to win gold at the Olympic games said they are delighted and overwhelmed to win "the first of gold medal of many to come" for Team GB. Helen Glover said home support made all the difference to them.

"When it was getting hard at the end of the race, their cheers, literally lifted the boat out of the water, in every stroke and chucked us, that little bit closer to the finish line.

They were just absolutely fantastic, as the whole of Great Britain has been throughout the whole of the gmes so far. You don't know how much this mean, it really is huge for the athletes you support"

Royal Mail have released a gold medal stamp to celebrate Helen Glover and Heather Stanning's gold medal win in the women's pairs rowing final.

The stamp will be available from tomorrow afternoon and is being sold in more than 500 Post Offices branches, including Penzance, where Helen comes from, and Reading, where the pair live.

Beijing Olympic silver medallist Emma Pooley has started her pursuit for Olympic glory in the women's time trial in London.

Commander Land Forces, General Sir Nick Parker KCB CBE ADC Gen, described Royal Artillery Captain Heather Stanning's gold medallist success as "fantastic".

"It is fantastic that Heather and Helen have won Olympic Gold today. It is a magnificent result and a testament to their hard work over the last few years.

"The Army has been very proud to support Heather in her preparations to London 2012, and I have no doubt that soldiers across the globe will be sharing in her success today.”

British golden girl Helen Glover has had a "meteoric, rapid rise" after starting rowing just four years ago and her family is still trying to get to grips with the sport, her mother Rachel said today.