Great Britain’s rowers won a dramatic Olympic gold in the women’s quadruple sculls after a photo finish with the Netherlands.

The Dutch led from the front and were half a boat length clear with 200m to go before an astonishing push from GB pipped them at the line.

England’s Lauren Henry, Lola Anderson and Georgina Brayshaw and Northern Ireland’s Hannah Scott won in six minutes 16.31 seconds, with the Netherlands 0.15 seconds behind them.

After an anxious wait for the winner to be announced, the four collapsed into each other’s arms in scenes of jubilation and pure exhaustion as they added Olympic gold to their 2023 world title success.

“I still can’t quite believe it,” Scott told BBC One. “We kept it so cool to the end. We had the confidence, we know we’ve done so many hard miles in training. The immensity of it hasn’t caught up with me yet.”

Henry, at 22 the youngest member of the crew, had urged her team-mates to mount one last big effort, telling them: “We are going now, we need to go now.”

“I’d felt we’d won it because I sensed I was ahead of the Dutch bow girl,” she said. “But it wasn’t until I looked at the big screen and saw ‘GBR 1’ that I believed it. That moment was just ecstatic.”

After a disappointing campaign in Tokyo without any golds, the triumph signifies what Team GB’s rowers hope will be the start of a return to form.

GB’s men finished fourth in the same event with the Netherlands successfully defending their title from Tokyo.

Tom Barras was the only remaining rower from the GB team that won silver in 2021, with Callum Dixon, Matthew Haywood and Graeme Thomas completing the quartet that finished almost two seconds behind Poland in third, with Italy claiming silver.

It is the first time Team GB have won the quadruple sculls in the Olympics and is the latest emotional instalment in the lives of some of the quartet.

After Helen Glover and Heather Stanning claimed gold in the women’s pair at London 2012, a young Anderson wrote on a piece of paper: “My name is Lola Anderson and I think it would be my biggest dream in life to go to the Olympics in rowing and if possible win a gold for GB.”

She then threw it away, but without her knowledge her father Don – a former rower – retrieved it. He kept it for seven years and, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, wanted to remind her of her dreams.

“I know that he would be so proud of me,” a tearful Anderson said after receiving her medal. “I am thinking about him a lot right now.

“It’s quite overwhelming to be experiencing this but I am so grateful.

“I threw it away because I didn’t believe. I was 13 at the time, so why would you believe that?”

Anderson, 26, added the diary entry was as valuable to her as an Olympic gold medal.

“I always get a bit nervous taking it anywhere with me,” she said. “What happens if a suitcase gets lost, or something like that?

“It’s a piece of paper but it’s the most valuable thing I have, maybe joint with this [gold medal] now. It’s safe in a tin with all my dad’s old medals.”

Scott, from Coleraine, was also inspired by London 2012 success while Brayshaw overcame the odds of a traumatic horse-riding accident when she was 15 to reach the pinnacle of her sport.

She was told her injuries would be “life-changing” by doctors, only to recover through extensive rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

“I believed in all of the girls. I still can’t believe it. We’ve worked on this for three years. It has left me quite speechless,” Brayshaw told BBC One.

Scott added: “We’ve all had personal journeys to how we’ve got here. It’s not been easy and there’s been a lot of setbacks in each individual’s story.

“It just shows that you’ve got to persevere, learn from those experiences and use them as positives.”

Germany claimed bronze while defending champions China finished sixth.

Meanwhile, gold-medal favourites Emily Craig and Imogen Grant progressed to Friday’s final of the lightweight women’s double sculls.

Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George claimed second place in their pairs semi-final to reach the final on Friday, while Ireland’s Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney also made it through with a third-place finish.

Two-time Olympic champion Helen Glover and the women’s four are among the British boats going for gold on Wednesday.