Frances Houghton will sit out the World Championships in Amsterdam next week.

The two-time Olympic silver medallist, from Wheatley, has been struggling with a virus and is not ready to compete.

The 33-year-old, who had been due to race in the double scull with Victoria Thornley, said: “Since joining the GB Rowing Team as a junior in 1995 this is the first time I have missed a World Championships due to illness, so it is a very strange feeling.”

Meanwhile, three Oxford youngsters helped Britain win a silver medal in the men’s coxed four at the Junior World Championships in Hamburg.

Charles Elwes, from Radley College, Thomas Digby, from Abingdon School, and coxswain Hugo Marsh, from St Edward’s were part of the crew coached by Radley’s John Gearing.

Matilda Martin, from Headington School, who was whisked from the GB Coupe team as a last-minute substitute in the four, was in the crew that won the B final.

Oxford University women’s lightweight quad of Becky Lane, Sophie Philbrick, Ellie Backhouse and Sarah Robinson became European Universities champions at the EUSA Games in Rotterdam.

Action is back on the Isis this weekend with the Oxford City Royal Regatta on Saturday and the newer sprint version on Sunday.

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