First mates! Grainger and Watkins hope の近くに friendship can help them 勝利

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins teamed up more than two years ago as rowers in GB's 二塁打 sculls boat and have been unbeaten since, winning at the World 選手権s for the past two seasons.?

They are arguably the 列／漕ぐ／騒動ing team's firmest hope of a gold メダル, and の中で the strongest 競争相手s in any sport for GB.

Theirs would be a first 列／漕ぐ／騒動ing gold for British women, which they are hoping to （人命などを）奪う，主張する next Friday. Outside the boat Watkins, 29, 初めは from Leek, Staffordshire, is married while Aberdonian Grainger, 36, is 選び出す／独身. But until the Olympics finish they are the most 重要な partner in each other's life . . .

Making a splash: Watkins (left) and Grainger relax in Henley

Grainger: I suppose we are a bit like a married couple . . .

Watkins: Yes, one that's been together for 20 years! 現実に there are a lot of similarities and at the moment I see more of? Katherine than I do of my? husband. We are working に向かって a ありふれた goal, we need each other and it's in our 利益／興味s to look after each other's physical and mental wellbeing.

Grainger: The good thing is we aren't just in this because we need to be but because we want to be. I think you could do this if you weren't の近くに in a personal sense, but I do think it's a stronger 共同 because we get on 井戸／弁護士席.?

Watkins: Katherine is the first person I turn to if I am having a hard time with something. She knows me the best of anyone in the 列／漕ぐ／騒動ing squad and I know she wants the best for me.

Grainger: The nature of what we do is that there are a lot of ups and 負かす／撃墜するs, with things like 傷害s, 選択s or things happening away from the boat. It's nice that I've got the experience which means others will come and see me for a 雑談（する）, although I don't know if I'm always much help!

Golden girls: Watkins and Grainger

Watkins: When I joined the team Katherine was already the 最高の，を越す? person, already a world 支持する／優勝者 and I was in a four for the GB Under 23s while she was prep aring for Athens (in 2004). By the time we were teamed up I knew her 井戸／弁護士席, but in the 早期に years I was walking on eggshells around her a bit.

Grainger: We room together on （軍の）野営地，陣営s and at major 会合s and we can 計器 each other's mood within five minutes of the alarm going off. It can be the 欠如（する） of a word or a pause in conversation. You can even tell by the way one of us walks into the gym, whether everything is 罰金 or something is not やめる 権利. That's good because we can always see the 早期に 調印するs of something and stop it building into a problem.

Watkins: It's a bit weird when I go home after not having seen my husband (Alan) for ages because we have to recalibrate a bit. I'm so used to telling Katherine everything. But we are used to that switch now.?

Grainger: We get 分裂（する） up from 株ing いつかs during the? winter . . .

Watkins: She doesn't snore, which is a good thing . . .

Grainger: I suppose the danger is because we know each other so 井戸／弁護士席 something could be taken very 本人自身で. If it's someone you know いっそう少なく 井戸／弁護士席 there's いっそう少なく chance of 傷つける, there's that thing, 'You only 傷つける the ones you love'.

Watkins: We've never got as far as a fallout, have we? We've had good days, and bad days when we've said what do we need to 直す／買収する，八百長をする? Is it one of us or both of us? And then there's Paul (Thompson, the coach). If there's a problem one corner of the triangle will sort it out.

Grainger: Technically we make a good team because we are a 類似の 高さ, 類似の build, we have a 類似の length of 一打／打撃 and we have a 類似の 力／強力にする 生産（高） - we are both at the 最高の，を越す end of the team on the physical 味方する. Once you've got all those things matched up then the boat should go 井戸／弁護士席, but there's an X-factor that makes a boat go really 急速な／放蕩な.?

Watkins: From the start we've had this understanding of the mental 味方する and technical 味方する. I can shout something in the middle of the race that might sound really vague like 'feel the 船体' and Katherine will know what I mean, even if nobody else would.

Grainger: We've done two World 選手権s and six World Cups together and woken up in the same room every time, so we know a bit of what to 推定する／予想する when we wake up on the morning of the Olympic final. Of course there will be 大規模な 神経s and adrenaline, but there's something really 慰安ing about knowing the person that you are about to go out and 取り組む this thing with, you know you aren't 直面するing the world alone. At that point it will feel like the two of us against the world. We won't need to say anything, it will just be a look at each other.

Watkins: It's more of a knowing look, the 注目する，もくろむ 接触する. We will both see it in each other's 注目する，もくろむs, there won't be the need to discuss how we're feeling.