With a chance to represent the United States on the medal stand in the women’s pair rowing finals on Wednesday, Grand Valley State University alum Sarah Zelenka and partner Sara Hendershot fell just short, finishing in fourth place — just two tenths of a second behind third-place New Zeeland.

The U.S. team got off to a slow start, but throughout the race the pair worked their way up from fourth in the six pair race to second on the final 300-meter stretch.

Zelenka and Hendershot finished the race with a time of 7:30.39, just behind third-place New Zeeland (7:30:19) and second place Australia (7:29.86), who surged ahead of the Americans on the final stretch.

Winning the first gold medal of the Olympics for host-nation Great Britain was the team of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, who finished in 7:27.13.

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