CITY of Oxford’s youngsters starred by capturing a silver medal in the British Junior Championships at Nottingham, writes John Wiggins.

For many juniors this is the competitive pinnacle of the year and Oxfordshire clubs will be very pleased to have reached finals even if only one crew converted this opportunity into medals.

City’s prolific J14 girls crew of Josie Nash, Leila Stringer, Bella Bowley, Eilish Turner-Frick and cox, Evie Tinegate were spurred by success the previous week at Kingston Regatta.

They belied their ages – Stringer is still J13 – with a mature performance in the final.

From the start, the gold medal was destined to go to Henley RC, but the Oxford girls managed a controlled race working their way up to third with 500m to go where they pushed through to grab the silver medal.

Also in A finals were City’s J16 girls double, who finished sixth, while the Hinksey Sculling School boys J15 double were fifth.

Falcon’s best result was second in the B final for their J15 girls quad.

l In Olympic year, the regular schedule of international events gets shuffled.

So, the European University Games were moved from September to mid-July though clearly not to the detriment of Oxford Brookes.

They contributed handsomely to regaining the team prize for Great Britain, with gold medals in both the men’s and women’s eights.

Three of the men’s crew – James Stanhope, Henry Swarbrick and Will Hall – were gold medallists for Brookes last year, but only Swarbrick and Stanhope were in the recent Henley winning crew calling up Richard Hume, Matthew Hnatiw, Benjamin Murphy, Richard Hawkins, George Eden and cox, Charlie Clarke from their huge squad.

The women’s eight was Jo Gannon, Christine Duff, Mirella McGee, Susie Dear, Dani Shrosbree, Grace Macdonald, Jessica Brown, Emily Herridge and cox, Alice McWilliam.

Oxford University featured in the women’s single where Flo Pickles won a bronze medal.

Her lightweight counterparts, Laure Bonfils, Dani Edmunds, Jowita Mieszkowska and Anna Robotham replicated that feat in the quad scull.

At Molesey Regatta, a number of local scullers chanced an entry but with only singular success. Oxford Academicals’ Sonia De Munari, a novice sculler last year, showed the progress she has made with victory in the IM2 scull.