By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sports Writer, Sydney

Greg Searle and Ed Coode failed agonisingly today to clinch a rowing medal in the coxless pairs.

The duo were edged out at the finish of a thrilling race to miss out on the medal places by little more than a tenth of a second.

The French pair, Jean-Christophe Rolland and Michel Andrieux, took gold with the United States claiming silver and Australia grabbing bronze.

It was, however, a valiant effort by a British crew which had struggled all year to find its best form but which had looked to have peaked at just the right time.

The pair had the daunting task of rowing an hour-and-a-half before Steve Redgrave's bid to make history in the coxless fours.

And at first it looked as if they would make it a glorious start to the day in a thrilling and competitive race at Penrith Lakes.

They raced into the lead and by as early as the 250m mark they had taken a half length advantage over Yugoslavia.

They maintained their power impressively, stroking at up to 38 per minute, and at half-way their lead was almost a second and a half - and we dared to dream of glory.

France, however, have been the favourites in this discipline all year and they started to make their move at the 1400 mark, piling on the power and surging past the Brits in a matter of 20 strokes.

As they neared the final stages of the 2000m course Australia and the United States had also crept up to Searle and Coode and it looked as if the Brits' early pace was beginning to take its toll.

So it proved as they wilted in the final surge which saw France take gold in a time of 6:32.97 with the United States (Ted Murphy and Sebastian Bea) second and Australia (Matthew Long and James Tomkins) third.

Searle and Goode were little more than a whisker behind but had to be content with fourth and a feeling of what-might-have-been.

For Searle, the management consultant from Wimbledon, it was the first taste of failure in three Olympics, having won gold with brother Jonny in the men's coxed pair in Barcelona in 1992 and bronze four years ago in the coxless fours at Atlanta.

For Goode it was sheer agony after missing out on a seat in the coxless fours when he lost his place to Tim Foster - a selection process shown in a recent television documentary.

The disappointment was all too clear to see in their slumped shoulders and pained expressions.

Searle and Coode were almost in tears as they reflected on missing out on a medal.

Searle said: "We just raced our race and did as good as we could. We had no time to think about it and we didn't do anything wrong. I thought we were quick enough to win the race.

"We never imagined any situation of us not winning. We were in control of ourselves but we knew somebody was coming up.

"We did as much as we could and it felt like we had done everything right.

"They all came through in they second half of the race but we rowed our best race. You can't do much more than that."

"We might have won it on another day but that was the one that mattered. We haven't blown it because blown it sounds like we threw it away but we didn't. We just didn't win it.

"Now we've got a lot of thinking to do (about the future) and we have to try to make some sense of that race."

Coode said: "We raced the race that we set out to race. I felt strong during the third 500 and I don't know why we lost it. I just can't believe we came fourth.

"To work for three years of our lives and come away with fourth place - it's not fair to all the people who have supported us."