OLIVIA Whitlam and the rest of Team GB’s women’s eight scraped into Thursday’s final after finishing fourth in the repechage at Eton Dorney.

The 26-year-old from Daresbury rowed from the bow seat in the five-way race this morning, Tuesday, and helped GB finish fourth behind eventual winners the Netherlands, second-placed Romania and third-placed Australia.

Whitlam, who finished sixth in the women’s pair final in Beijing four years ago, said: "It's frustrating and annoying that we have not put down a good race yet.

"We've trained as a squad for a long time now and it would be good to do that, but we haven't so far."

The four qualifying teams now join USA and Canada in the final on Thursday afternoon, 12.30pm start, though GB will have to improve dramatically on this performance if they are to pick up a medal.

The Netherlands led from start to finish in a thrilling battle with Romania at the head of the contest, with Australia opening a slender lead over GB in the first 500m and gradually stretching it as the race went on.

GB finished the 2000m course in 6mins 21.58secs, three seconds back from the Dutch and half a length back from their Aussie rivals, though they comfortably beat last-placed finishers Germany.