Brittain and Mitchell wins gold at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships
Tuks's Rowing Club produced a third brother from the well-known Brittain family who excels on the international stage.
Another brother from the famous Brittain family is making progress in international rowing ranks.
Charles Brittain, brother of Olympic medallists Matthew and Lawrence, has won a gold medal at an international competition this past weekend. Just like his more famous brothers Charles is also attached to the Tuks Rowing Club.
Brittain and James Mitchell gave a masterclass display of what guts and determination should be about when they won the gold medal in the men’s pair race during the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland.
With 500 metres to go few would have tipped the Tuks based rowers to win as they were trailing the Romanian crew, Dumitru-Alexandru Ciobica and Florin-Sorin Lehaci by four seconds.
However, it quickly became clear that Brittain and Mitchell were hell-bent on snatching a victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat. With perfect teamwork combined with brute force, they started to close in stroke by stroke. Their determination led to them not only passing the Romanians but beating them by a second.
The South Africans stopped the clock at 6:41.74 with the Romanians finishing in 6:42.53. Italy’s Andrea Maestrale and Raffele Giulivo were third in 6:48.23.
“We stuck to the race plan, and we got into a perfect tempo for the first 1 500m. Over the last 500m, our only goal was to minimise the damage. Everything just clicked from then on, and that boat just got faster and faster. I must credit the Romanians for their aggressive approach,” said an elated Mitchell.
Winning the gold medal means that Brittain has taken the first step to emulating the performances of his elder brothers. Matthew was part of the “Awesome Foursome” that won gold at the 2012 Games in London while Lawrence teamed up with Shaun Keeling to win a silver medal at the 2016 Games in Rio.
Lawrence praised his younger brother and Mitchell for their heroic performance.
“It was an epic race. I was really impressed to see how Charles and James were able to hold their composure throughout the race. The way they managed to do five seconds of damage over the last 500 metres was just awesome. It must have been pure guts. I think this is just the start for both of them. Charles and James are just going to get better,” he said after the race.
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