ANDOVER rower Charles Elwes will be confident of upgrading his Olympic bronze to gold at Paris 2024 after making it three European titles on the trot.
A bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020, Elwes has become an indispensable member of the engine room in the GB men’s eight.
The Hampshire star joined forces with Sholto Carnegie, Jacob Dawson, Morgan Bolding, Rory Gibbs, Tom Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford, and coxswain Harry Brightmore for yet another gold in Szeged, Hungary.
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"It's never going to be enough until we take the last stroke of the most important race of the summer," he said.
"We're always striving for more and striving to go quicker.
"We've got to believe, if we're not striving to win then what's the point in doing this."
The constantly shifting wind made for a very tough challenge on Hungarian waters but the British crew were the class of the field, holding off long-time rivals Germany to claim victory by around 2.5 seconds.
"We knew it was going to be tough racing this time," said Dawson.
"The Germans are hungry and want to right their wrongs from the last few years and it was very clear that Romania wanted to make a big push at these championships.
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"It was about sticking to the plan and not getting flustered by what they threw at us."
The GB Rowing Team enjoyed a fantastic weekend overall and finished top of the medal table with eight golds, one silver and one bronze.
Elwes and team will race once more before the Olympics at the World Cup in Lucerne in May.
Rudkin added: "It's not over until it's over and we're very aware that crews are going to come out for us this season and we're very prepared and ready to take that on.
"We want to push ourselves to be the best version of ourselves we can and that's what we aim to do."
British Rowing is the governing body for the sport and is responsible for the development of rowing in England and the training and selection of rowers to represent Great Britain.
The GB Rowing Team is supported by the National Lottery Sports Fund. To find out more, and to follow the team, head to britishrowing.org.
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