THREE local rowers helped the men’s eight spare Great Britain’s blushes when winning bronze in the final race of the World Championships, writes John Wiggins.

Only the PR3 mixed coxed four, who maintained their eight-year unbeaten record with gold in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, had previously stepped onto the podium.

That crew also included local interest in the form of cox and Oxford Blue, Erin Wysocki-Jones.

On the whole, medals were hard to come by for GB, but the men’s eight won bronze after a photo-finish.

Radley College duo Oli Wynne-Griffiths and Tom George, as well as Oxford Brookes’ Matt Tarrant, saw them finish just 0.03secs off second place.

The women’s eight, which included Dark Blue Anastasia Chitty and Headingtonian Fiona Gammond, had earlier finished sixth.

Another Oxford Blue, Zoe Lee, was fifth in the quad.

Wallingford’s lightweight scullers, Ellie Piggott in the double and Gemma Hall in the quad, impressed to also secure fifth-placed finishes.

A number of former Abingdon School rowers were in B finals.

Jamie Copus’s lightweight double was third and the pair of Matt Rossiter and Oli Cook came second.

Meanwhile, the Isis sculls – the opening event of the autumn head race season – from Iffley to Folly Bridge took place last Saturday.

Local crews enjoyed success, including hosts City of Oxford.

Caitlin Armstrong won the Band 1 singles, while Sinead Turner-Frick and Sam Taylor (both J16) triumphed.

Robert McRae took the J15 as well as being in the victorious quad crew.

Merton College provided the fastest boat of the day, with Samuel Picard and Lukas Koch winning the open double sculls.

Olé Tietz, of Christ Church College, was the fastest single-sculler.

Falcon RC also made use of the home advantage to win eight

events.

Iolanda Vendrell triumphed in three of those – the masters B single, masters A double with Kathrin Jansen, and the open double.

Magdalen College School produced the fastest time for quads.

While Headington School dominated the events they contested, with Isabel Magee (J15), Cordelia Mahony (J17) and Rachel Grainger (J18) enjoying singles wins.

Abingdon RC clinched the women’s masters C double and Oxford Academicals RC claimed the women’s masters C singles.