Rob Mitchell (born 8 May 1976) is an Australian former lightweight rower. He was a 1997 world champion and twice an Australian national champion. He won gold at the

1997 World Rowing Championships The 1997 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 31 August to 7 September 1997 at the Lac d'Aiguebelette, France. The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federatio ...

in Aiguebelette in the lightweight men's eight.

Club and state rowing

Mitchell's senior club rowing was from the

UTS Haberfield Rowing Club UTS Haberfield Rowing Club in Sydney was formed as Haberfield Rowing Club in 1925. It has occupied its current site on Port Jackson's, Iron Cove at Dobroyd Point since 1926. The club had a senior and lightweight Sydney premiership & national com ...

in Sydney. Mitchell rowed in New South Wales representative men's lightweight fours contesting the Penrith Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the

Australian Rowing Championships The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's pre ...

from 1997 to 2000. Those crews were victorious in 1997 and 1998 .1997 Australian Championships
/ref>

International representative rowing

Mitchell first represented Australia aged 19 in the lightweight

double scull A double scull, also abbreviated as a 2x, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars each, one in each hand. Racing boats (often called "shells") ar ...

at the 1995

World Rowing U23 Championships World Rowing U23 Championships is an international rowing regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is ...

at Groningen in The Netherlands where the Australians took the bronze medal.Mitchell at World Rowing
/ref> Then at the 1996

Hazewinkel The Hazewinkel is a 2000-meter rowing and regatta course belonging to Sport Vlaanderen in Heindonk, municipality of Willebroek, near Mechelen, Belgium. The site consists of a finish tower, boathouses, a cafeteria, and eight basic huts that ho ...

, he rowed at three in the lightweight coxless four to a gold medal victory. In 1997 he made his debut in an Australian senior crew – the

Lyall McCarthy Lyall McCarthy OAM (born 19 May 1956) is a former Australian national champion lightweight rower and national rowing coach. He has coached Australian crews to gold medals at the World Rowing Championships and the Olympic Games. Club and state r ...

coached men's lightweight eight. At the

in Aiguebelette, Mitchell rowed at seven behind his New South Wales and U23 team-mate Michael Wiseman to a thrilling final victory by 0.03 seconds with only 1.5 lengths separating the field. Mitchell won his first and only World Championship title. At the 1999 World Championships in St Catharines Canada, Mitchell rowed a lightweight coxless pair with Wiseman to a seventh place finish. In 2002 in a crew with the veteran Tasmanian lightweight

Simon Burgess Simon Burgess (born 11 September 1967 in Franklin, Tasmania) is an Australian national champion, two-time World Champion, three-time Olympian and dual Olympic silver medal-winning lightweight rower. He represented Australia ten times at World Ro ...

, Mitchell raced in the coxless four at a World Rowing Cup in Munich and at the

2002 World Rowing Championships The 2002 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 15 to 22 September 2002 on the Guadalquivir at Seville, Spain. Adaptive events were held for the first time at a World Championships. Medal summary Men's e ...

in Seville to a fourth placing. His final Australian representative selection was in the

coxless four A coxless four, abbreviated as a 4- and also called a straight four, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars, without a coxswain. The crew consists of four ...

which competed at Milan 2003 and placed seventh.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Rob 1976 births Living people Australian male rowers World Rowing Championships medalists for Australia Place of birth missing (living people)