Rio de Janeiro, Aug 14 (IANS): Britain has captured gold in the men's eight rowing event at the Rio Olympics, while the United States took the top prize in the women's competition.

The team of Scott Durant, Tom Ransley, Andrew Hodge, Matt Gotrel, Pete Reed, Paul Bennett, Matt Langridge, William Satch and Phelan Hill won the final with a time of 5:29.63 on Saturday, reports Efe.

Germany captured the silver medal with a time 5:30.96 and the Netherlands bagged bronze.

British men finally got a much-coveted gold medal in the men's eight, also known as the coxed eight, after having to settle for bronze at the 2012 Olympics in London and silver in Beijing.

In the women's eight final, the US team of Emily Regan, Kerry Simmons, Amanda Polk, Lauren Schmetterling, Tessa Gobbo, Meghan Musnicki, Eleanor Logan, Amanda Elmore and Katelin Snyder won gold with a time of 6:01.49, beating out Britain and Romania, which took silver and bronze, respectively.