The future looks very bright for local oarswomen Holly Nixon who competed for Great Britain in the World under-23 championships at Varese, Italy last week.

Racing commenced on Wednesday with temperatures reaching into the high 20s Celsius and almost flat calm water. This meant athletes were well warmed up before they came out of the starting blocks.

Great Britain were drawn in heat 1 of the women’s quadruple sculls. A top two position from five boats would earn Nixon and her crew a direct path to the final on Saturday. Great Britain got out quickly with New Zealand racing hard behind them. Great Britain remained in the lead, but only just, through the middle of the race. It was going to be decided in the final sprint for the line. Rating 36 strokes per minute, Great Britain managed to hold off the New Zealanders crossing the line in first place followed then by Romania, Italy and Australia. Their finishing time over the 2km course of 6min 31.6 sec was 5 seconds quicker than last year’s winning gold medallists.

Having posted the fastest qualifying time from the heats Great Britain looked like the boat to watch out for in the final but reigning under-23 World Champions Romania set the early pace. Poland were last year’s silver medallists and it wasn’t long until they took the lead. Coming through the middle of the race Poland still had a small lead, but now Russia were looking to take over with every stroke. Russia had done very well by winning heat 2 and they were expected to put up a serious challenge. In an incredible race for gold it was Russia who finished in first place followed by Poland. The final spot on the podium was taken by New Zealand, who held off a very strong closing sprint by Germany, Great Britain and Romania, to earn the bronze medal.

For Nixon this was not the result she was looking for having produced an impressive performance during the heats.

After the race she concluded “we gave it everything, we simply were not fast enough on the day”.

But a fifth place finish on the world stage is an excellent performance and she can compete again at this level next year.