Oarsman takes on university challenge
An international oarsman who started at Newark Rowing Club will be part of the Oxford crew for this year’s Xchanging University Boat Race.
Charlie Burkitt, 23, will be the stroke for Oxford as they take on Cambridge on the River Thames on April 3.
Charlie is a former pupil of The Grove School, Balderton. His family home is in Winthorpe.
He took up rowing at Newark when he was 16. He has two bronze under-23 medals won in the GB men’s pair championships and a silver medal from the world junior championships in 2004.
He won medals at the National Schools Regatta and the National Championships and at one point held the course record at the National Championships for a J16 single scull.
He moved to Leander Club, Henley-on-Thames, five years ago and stroked the Leander eight to victory in the Thames Cup at Henley in 2007.
The year after he was stroke again when Leander won the Head of the River Race in London.
Charlie is reading biomedical engineering at Wolfson College, Oxford.
He said that when he went to Oxford they had not initially liked the way he rowed and so he spent the autumn rebuilding his stroke to fit their style.
Lightest
“For the first two months it was like banging my head against the wall but the technical side of things has finally clicked and, although I’m not the strongest guy, I won all my seat races,” Charlie said.
He tipped the scales at just over 90kg at a weigh-in in London this week and is one of the two lightest men in the crew. The other is Ireland’s Martin Walsh, whom he beat to the stroke seat when the choice was made.
Charlie said his selection had not totally hit home yet, nor had he come to terms with the publicity that surrounds the event.
“I’m used to the crowds at Henley and the Boat Race crowds are just as big — it is one of the reasons I wanted to do this,” he said.
His parents, Mr and Mrs David Burkitt, of The Spinney, Winthorpe, will be there to watch the race and cheer him on.
The race day will be extra special for the family because Charlie’s grandparents, Mr and Mrs Phillip Matthews, of Mansfield, mark their diamond wedding on the same day. They will watch the race on television.
The team includes American twins Tyler and Cameron Winkelvoss, who competed in the 2008 Olympics, and Sjoerd Hamburger of the Netherlands, who was part of the winning Oxford crew last year.
The race will be broadcast live on BBC television and Radio 5 Live and watched by a global audience of millions.
