Like two men possessed Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain had to row out of a ‘deep, dark, corner’ over the last 500 metres moving from fourth down the field to win the Olympic heavyweight pair silver medal on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
The pair took an early lead over the first quarter of the race but soon feel back as the unbeatable Kiwi crew of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray moved past them to take the lead.
The Italians moved into second with Great Brittain get the advantage over the South Africans.
Halfway through the course Keeling and Brittain had to make a decision to make their move lying in fourth place.
“Everyone was moving and we were actually losing speed there then Lawrence called the move at the 1000 (metres) when we were fourth and we started changing momentum because we were in a deep, dark, corner there,” Brittain said.
The duo found that extra kick and started moving up the field dropping the British crew before overtaking the Italians.
“We had a pretty good start to the race where we were leading for a but the first 1000 metres was very tough where we were struggling to find the rhythm,” Brittain said.
“Coming through the halfway mark we were sitting in fourth, the Aussies were coming back and it was all happening.
“We grew the confidence and relaxed a bit out and through the last 500 metres we managed to put the big, big work in then suddenly we fond ourselves in second and it was on.”
Another few extra metres to the course and the South African men would have could the Kiwis but instead Bond and Murray kept their eight-year unbeaten record of 69 victories in tact.
New Zealand crossed the finish in 06:59.710 with the South Africans taking it home in 07:02.510 with the Italian pair of Giovanni Abagnale Marco di Costanzo bagging bronze.
Brittain and Keeling shared a hug as they climbed out of the boat as four years of hard work culminated in a medal they so desperately wanted.
“It sank straight on the finish line it was like ‘yeah, we are silver medallists’, it was an awesome work from us,” Brittain said.
“We had so much confidence, just before we went on we saw the rest of the team all of them making A-finals especially the four, we’ve been training against them all season.
“So it was nice to cheer for them give us the confidence and put in a big performance in.”
What made the performance the more special is the fact that Brittain was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Hodgkin's lymphoma less than two years ago.
Brittain beat the cancer before starting the arduous process of getting back into shape to challenge for a seat in the men’s pair boat.
South Africa could be in for more rowing medals after the other four boats also booked their places for the finals.
Both the men’s and women’s lightweight double sculls crews powered their way into today’s (Friday) finals winning their respective semi-finals.
The women’s pair of Lee-Ann Persse and Kate Christowitz got the crews in the mood for racing finishing their semi-final in third place for a final berth.
The surprise of the morning came from the men’s four boat of Jake Green, David Hunt, Jonty Smith, and Vincent Breet finished second in their race a day after winning the repechage.
It was all-round classy performances from all the crews making history and giving South Africa four more shots at the medals.
James Thompson and John Smith could add a men’s lightweight double sculls medal to the gold they won as members of the lightweight coxless fours from London 2012.
The duo made easy work of their semi-final moving from third over the first quarter to second over the middle 1000m before putting the foot down to win the race.
The women’s lightweight double sculls crew of Ursula Grobler and Kirsten McCann can also fancy their chances of a medal after leading for the majority of the race to cross the finish in second place.
Independent Media