In a historic Olympics, Rebecca Shorten has become the fifth athlete from Northern Ireland to win a medal in Paris after Team GB won silver in the women’s four.
Shorten, along with Helen Glover, Sam Redgrave and Esme Booth, were fastest in qualifying but missed out on gold, which was won by the Netherlands.
In a role reversal of GB’s success in the quadruple sculls on Wednesday, in which Hannah Scott from NI won gold – it was the Dutch who pipped the British crew to the line by a margin of 0.19 seconds.
The GB crew looked despondent after the finish line, in contrast with the celebrations of the Dutch who were in the adjacent lane.
“We’ve done a good job, we would have been very happy with gold and that’s what we were going out there for but we’ll take the silver,” said Belfast’s Shorten.
After the dramatic photo finish between the Dutch and GB crews in Monday’s quadruple sculls, it was the same two nations who led the way in the women’s four.
There was nothing to separate the crews at the 1,000m mark of the race as the Dutch held a narrow lead of 0.31 seconds.
That margin barely changed as the bows of the boats swapped positions on several occasions on the run to the line.
It was the Dutch who were able to celebrate gold, while Great Britain had to settle for silver.
Shorten joins Philip Doyle in winning a medal at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Thursday, after he helped Ireland to bronze in the men’s double sculls alongside Daire Lynch.
Their medals take the tally for athletes from NI to five after golds for Daniel Wiffen, Jack McMillan and Scott.