The 2007 world lightweight champion Paul Mattick proved unbeatable when he returned to local waters at the weekend.

After finishing fifth in the GB lightweight Olympic four, Mattick, racing in a single, was the fastest boat of the day – 7mins 4.2secs – in the Isis Sculls at Oxford, beating oposition from quads, doubles and singles.

He is pictured with the cup following his successful row.

Hinksey Sculling School excelled with four pennant wins on the 1,832m course on the Isis from Iffley Lock to the Head of the River pub.

City of Oxford did not have as many crews as usual, but their junior 15 boys quad were the second fastest boat of the day, six seconds slower than Mattick.

 Kirsty Miles, of Oxford Brookes University, and Lindsey Maguire, of Wallingford, returned from the European Championships with silver medals.

Rowing in the Nos 6 and 7 seats of the British women’s eight, the duo had to adapt quickly when, due to the weather, the finals on the Olympic course in Athens were brought forward a day.

The British eight, unlike many crews in Greece, involved no members who had raced in the Olympics in Beijing.

But they still pushed gold medallists Romania hard and were well ahead of the rest of the field.

Wallingford’s Andrea Dennis and her partner, Frances Fletcher, from Durham, were racing in their lightweight double scull only two weeks after taking a bronze medal in the World University Championships in Belgrade.

They still made the final in the older, higher pedigree line-up, but finished fourth. They were led home by Greece, Poland and Hungary but finished ahead of Austria and Germany.