YORK City Rowing Club struck gold and won two bronze medals at the British Junior Championships.

Eliana Soma and Daisy Jackson are the new girls’ under-14 double sculls national champions, while U 15 boys’ pair Tom Mills and Gonzalo Brione also took their place on the medals podium, along with U18 girls’ duo Lucy Edmunds and Katarina Bonner.

The River Ouse-based club sent a squad of 28, aged from 13 to 18, to the prestigious championships, which were staged over three days at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham.

An omnium competition took place for the youngest rowers, which incorporated completing a challenging list of skills and manoeuvrability tests, including standing up and turning around in a finely-balanced single or double sculling boat, before participating in a 500m sprint race.

Soma and Jackson stormed through their race to clock the fastest time of 62 crews and, when their performance was matched to the skills test points, their overall victory was confirmed.

The older squad members raced over 2km, with Mills and Briones overhauling a length deficit at 500m to take bronze by 0.01 seconds.

Their victory took the club’s tally to a silver and two bronzes over the last six years in that one event alone.

Edmunds and Bonner, meanwhile, finished a phenomenal year - their last as juniors - on a high.

Having been losing semi-finalists at Henley Women’s Regatta a few weeks ago, they claimed a third-placed finish and only missing out on silver by 0.5 seconds.

The City team also claimed tenth-placed spots in the girls’ U14 double and boys’ U15 single sculls, while the girls’ U15 single and U16 double sculls both won their C finals to finish seventh overall.

With a younger sub on board after performing so well at Henley, the boys’ U18s still managed to win their B final by clear water over the other crews to come in seventh too.

Elsewhere, at the inaugural British Rowing Power 8 Sprints tournament on Bristol Harbour, four City members were selected for Team Newcastle.

The event, which is the showpiece of the Bristol Harbour Festival, has an exciting new knockout format where eight-oared boats go head-to-head over 350m in races lasting only a minute, with Newcastle pitted against crews from seven other cities - London, Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, Manchester, Bristol and Nottingham

City’s club captain Dan Lewis sat at stroke in the Newcastle men’s eight, while women’s captain Sophy Nicholson, Louise Hawkyard and Helen Waller were in the stern of the women’s boat.

In the heats, the men’s team came up against a formidable Cambridge crew, who proved too strong for them.

The women fought hard against home favourites Team Bristol, but were also sent packing after 350m.

Anybody who fancies giving rowing a go or would like to return to the sport, are encouraged to visit the www.ycrc.co.uk website for details on how to sign up for summer taster sessions.