Brittain siblings in fairytale regatta victory
THE historic Buffalo Regatta came to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday afternoon with a fairytale win for the Brittain brothers in the Grand Challenge final.
Lawrence, Matthew, Charles and James Brittain were rowing in the same boat together in a competitive race for the first time, and the siblings produced a superb performance to edge out the fast chasing challengers Jake Green, Leo Davis, John Smith and David Hunt, who finished just a second behind the champs.
It also sealed double delight for 2016 Olympic silver medallist Lawrence, who stormed to a win in the other main race on the day, the Silver Sculls.
“This was an amazing day for me, to bring home the double, with it being my first Silver Sculls victory, which was a big tick off my bucket list. Then to pull it off in the Grand with my brothers was just awesome,” Lawrence said.
“It was a massive dream for us when we all started rowing, about 10 years or so ago.
“We just managed to get everything right so that we could come here and put our best race on. To pull off the victory was absolutely phenomenal.”
The Grand Challenge had got off to a quick start with the Brittains out of the blocks fast. However, the Green crew were with them and actually took the lead by the half-way mark.
The Brittains fought back in the third quarter and pulled into a decent lead, but again the Green crew came charging back.
Unfortunately they were just too late as the Brittains crossed the line for the win.
“That is a crew full of Olympic champions and Olympians, so we knew we really had to do our best,” Lawrence said.
It was the first time that a crew of brothers racing together had won the Grand Challenge final.
In the silver sculls race it was all Lawrence Brittain as he put on a superb show to take a strong win, five seconds ahead of fellow Tuks rower Kyle Schoonbee, while three seconds back a furious battle for third was on show with Rhodes rower Bradley Betts beating Tuks’ Nicholas Oberholzer in a photo finish.
“That was pretty tough. It was a slow race with the incoming tide and head winds, but I was feeling really strong and took control of the race,” Brittain said.
In the end, the weather had the final say as, just after the Grand Challenge race, lightning and rain came, with the rest of the races being cancelled.
“We had three brilliant days of weather, which is quite unusual for East London, with very little wind. Unfortunately the bad weather came at the end, but we managed to get the major events done, so that’s the important thing,” East London Boating Association chairman Phillip King said.
Overall in the regatta, the top points on the university front went to Tuks who finished with 420 points, followed by UJ with 300 points.
St Andrew’s College with 230 points for the boys and St Andrew’s School for Girls with 300 points were the top performing boys and girls schools.