Oxford’s Andrea Dennis and Wallingford’s Kathryn Twyman won a silver medal for Great Britian at the European Champ-ionships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, finishing behind world champions Greece, writes Mike Rose-well.

It was the second time in a fortnight that Twyman and Dennis have been on the podium, following their gold medal performance in the lightweight women’s quadruple scull at the World Champion-ships in Slovenia.

Earlier this season, they also took a silver at the Munich World Cup double sculls, finishing behind their squad mates, Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking.

The double sculls is the only Olympic event for women’s lightweights and Goodsell and Hosking have have had the edge this season.

Could either of the locals gain an Olympic vest?

Pete Sheppard, the GB team manager, said: “It is a very good result. They have come in and shown their standard against world-class opposition. They were very pleased how close they got to the Greek world champions.

“They are setting themselves up for next year challenging for the Olympic team.”

Meanwhile, closer to home the Abingdon men’s quad scull of Matt Robinson, Marcus Nurton, Steve Tassell and Richard Maynard had been gearing themselves up to race the 31-mile Boston Marathon course last Sunday to support the local charity Down’s Syndrome Oxford. However, the event had to be cancelled at the last minute due to excessive weed in the Thames.

So as not to disappoint those who had sponsored the charity, they set off on Sunday morning to row from Abingdon Rowing Club to Reading.

They rowed 45k, took 4,200 strokes in 3hrs 20mins and have to date raised £2,500 for the charity.