Katherine Grainger became the first British woman to win medals at three consecutive Olympic Games yesterday, with silver in the quadruple sculls, but no one had the nerve to offer congratulations. Never in the history of the Games have runners-up looked so distraught.

For Grainger, this was her third silver medal in successive Olympics and by far the most painful to take. “It’s definitely the hardest one,” she said. “It’s another medal, I’m really proud of what we’ve done together, but we came for the gold, we made no bones about that. We’re all absolutely devastated right now.”

They wept in interviews, on the phone and on the shoulders of families and friends. Perhaps it was the inevitablity of it all that hurt the most. They knew that China possessed more finishing speed - they had proved as much in previous duels - but there seemed nothing they could do about it.

Rowing at a higher, more punishing rate, the Great Britain crew tried to establish a lead big enough for them to be able to defend it successfully down the stretch, but they never pulled more than two thirds of a length clear. They failed to shrug off the China boat, which powered through in the last 500 metres to win the nation’s first Olympic gold medal in the sport, although most likely not their last.

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The British women seemed to have given everything they had, with Debbie Flood collapsing to the ground as she climbed out of the boat, but did they get their tactics wrong? Did they fail to surprise the Chinese? “We do a lot of practice, how to increase the speed, and you expect a sprint for the line in the Olympic final,” Grainger said.

“I’ll have to look again at what happens, but there’s people in our boat who make those decisions, those calls and are very aware of what’s going on around us.”

Grainger, who is studying for a PhD in homicide and psychopathy, declined to say whether she would bow out on three silvers.

“I’m going to have a holiday and then think about the future,” she said, but she will be 36 when London 2012 comes around.

There was disappointment, although nothing like the same despair, among the men’s eight, who finished second to Canada. They erred in allowing the winners to establish a length advantage early on. The gap had halved by the finish, but the result was never in doubt.

Alex Partridge, in particular, did not know whether his glass was half-full or half-empty with a silver medal. He missed out on gold in Athens four years ago when a collapsed lung ruled him out of the coxless four. Then he was dropped in April from the flagship boat.

“For the rowers to be disappointed with silver shows how far we have come,” David Tanner, the rowing performance director, said.