Dynamic duo are driven on by the pain of one defeat

HEATHER STANNING does not take long to recall the last time that, alongside Helen Glover, she experienced the bitter taste of defeat.

“It was the final of the 2011 World Championships,” she says. “We had won every race that year until the final.”

It is funny that after 50 races undefeated in the women’s coxless pairs, that specific loss, from five years ago, still sticks in the memory.

As with most sportspeople – the really driven and competitive ones at least – it is the defeats more than the victories that are the root cause of motivation.

“If I am honest, I don’t want to forget what it is like to lose because if you lose sight of that, you start to think you are invincible and that is when you can come unstuck. Losing that final is not something we want to repeat.”

Yet invincible is the only way to describe this duo. They are the Olympic, world and European champions. They are, if we are honest, the best team in British sport. Can you think of anybody else who has experienced such dominance?

“It’s not something I worry about too much,” said Stanning, 31, when asked if she feels they have had enough recognition as a pair. “If I am honest, for me, it’s all about the medal, less so about what people think. What I do like is people who are interested in our story.

“The genuine supporters. I love meeting them, people who have been inspired by what we have done.”

You ask Stanning for the secret and it is quite simple. Hard work, trust and honesty in their partnership.

“Helen and I get on incredibly well,” she says. “When we first got into a boat together, our foundations were exactly the same, we had been taught by the same guy. Very quickly we clicked as a partnership.”

After victory at London 2012, Britain’s first of those glorious Games, Stanning did not have much time to celebrate. She is an army woman and within months she was deployed to Afghanistan.

After Rio, she will return to military service, this time to Staff College in Wiltshire where military personnel are trained in administrative, staff and policy aspects. Once a Captain, she is now a Major.

After Rio, the pair have decided to take a break and at some stage, Glover, 31, will get married to TV wildlife presenter and adventurer Steve Backshall.