IT TOOK an occasion as momentous as being named one of Team GB’s Olympic opening ceremony flag-bearers to surprise even-keeled rower Helen Glover, who this afternoon in Paris reached her fourth Olympic final.

The two-time Olympic champion, 38, has now twice staged comebacks — once after announcing her retirement in 2016 to start a family before returning for the Olympics three years ago in Tokyo, then declaring her surprise intent to aim for the podium again in Paris.

Reflecting on her Friday night honour as flag-bearer, Glover said: “It actually gave me a massive boost. I didn’t really expect it to, but it’s almost like you get told and you feel that little bit prouder.

“I think when you come to the Games there’s lots of predictability, there’s lots of things that you know are going to happen, but that is something I did not know, expect, predict and it’s one of the very few things that is thrown at you and is not a negative, it’s actually a positive surprise.”

Glover — now competing in the women’s four — and her team-mates Rebecca Shorten, Samantha Redgrave and Esme Booth were the women’s fastest quartet on the water at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, where the top two crews from the same number of heats reached the final.

The Britons, with Glover in the bow seat, finished in 6:42.57, nearly three seconds faster than second-placed New Zealand, while the Netherlands and Romania also automatically booked berths in Thursday’s final.

Glover won her first Olympic gold in the women’s pair with Heather Stanning at London 2012 and defended that title four years later together in Rio before she decided to step away from the sport to have children with husband and TV presenter Steve Backshall.

Three children later, she made history at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games as she became the first mother to compete for Team GB in rowing, coming up just short of the podium as she and new partner Polly Swann finished fourth.

Though home life looks quite different these days, Glover said: “The weird thing is I think if you were to kind of transport yourself into the ‘me’ of any start line over the last decade there’s not much difference.

“The way I think, the way I feel, the way I act on that start line, it’s just me. Whether I’ve got three children, whether I’m at my first Olympic Games, it just feels like a place where I’m just ready to go out and do what I can.”

Oli Wilkes, David Ambler, Matt Aldridge and Freddie Davidson reached the men’s fours final with a second-place finish, while Olllie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George, aiming to become the first British men to win Olympic men’s coxless pair gold since Sirs Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, advanced to the semi-finals after topping their heat.

Emily Craig and Imogen Grant reached the lightweight women’s doubles sculls semis, while Chloe Brew and Edwards finished fourth in their women’s pairs heat and will have another chance to qualify for the final via the repechages.