Both the women’s and men’s eights won silver medals on Friday afternoon, while a late surge secured a second successive bronze for the lightweight men’s four.

Today’s medals, adding to the gold and silver won by the lightweight men’s quad and men’s four respectively on Thursday, took GB’s tally up to six – matching their total from Plovdiv, Bulgaria last year.

Sir David Tanner, British Rowing’s Performance Director and Overall Team Leader in Rotterdam, said: “With six medals, including two great golds and three strong silvers, we can be proud of our young rowers at these Championships.

“There is real promise in this team and I am sure that we have some exceptional talent here to challenge for senior team places as we start the Tokyo Olympiad.”

Hodgkins-Byrne and Leyden already have senior experience and gave another demonstration of why they are so highly rated by finishing six seconds clear of the field in the women’s double scull final.

“I can’t believe how well that worked out!” said Hodgkins-Byrne. “This is my third go at the U23s and my first medal. It just felt different this year, we’ve felt really confident all the way.”

The women's eight medal winners

On a good day for the Hodgkins-Byrne family, younger sister Charlotte helped the women’s eight emulate the senior team’s result at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by finishing second to the United States.

Alice Bowyer, Emily Ford, Chloe Brew, Holly Hill, Madeline Badcott, Anna Thornton, Heidi Long and cox Sasha Adwani were also in the GB boat that pushed away from Russia in the third 500m to secure silver.

Long said: “I am so happy, I can’t believe it. I don’t think we could have asked for anything more, it feels absolutely amazing!”

The men’s eight of Calum Irvine, Oliver Wynne-Griffith, Matthew Benstead, Timothy Livingstone, David Bewicke-Copley, Sholto Carnegie, Robert Hurn, Arthur Doyle and cox Ian Middleton weren’t able to overhaul the front-running Dutch in their race but were pleased to get a silver medal.

Carnegie said: “We didn’t get off to the best of starts but we put it all out there and kept pushing through to get a medal.”

The men's eight with their silver medals

The lightweight men's four medal winners

The lightweight men’s four final was a repeat of last year with GB’s Ed Fisher, Ben Reeves, Jonny Jackson and Alistair Douglass taking bronze behind Italy and Germany after a late sprint past Poland.

Douglass said: “We came here to try and win the gold but we knew it was going to be a top-class field, so we’re pleased to go home with a medal.”

It is the turn of the seniors to challenge for medals on Saturday, with five GB crews contesting the finals.

The women’s four of Fiona Gammond, Donna Etiebet, Holly Nixon and Holly Norton race at 10.55am BST, followed at 11.10am BST by the men’s coxed pair of Ollie Cook, Callum McBrierty and cox Henry Fieldman.

Britain are defending champions in both that boat class and the lightweight men’s pair, with Joel Cassells and Sam Scrimgeour bidding to hold onto their title at 11.55am BST.

Brianna Stubbs, Emily Craig, Imogen Walsh and Ellie Piggott all won silver medals at last year’s World Championships and will be looking to upgrade those in the lightweight women’s quadruple scull final at 12.10pm BST.

The finals conclude at 12.25pm BST with Charles-Waite Roberts, Jamie Copus, Jamie Kirkwood and Zak Lee-Green racing for GB in the lightweight men’s quad.

Saturday afternoon sees the focus move back to the Junior World Championships, with five GB crews racing in semi-finals – the women’s four, men’s four, women’s quad, men’s quad and men’s pair.

Click on the expander boxes below for reports, reactions and results in full from today’s racing.

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Barras, in the heavyweight category, enjoyed a cracking race against Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk – seventh in the senior event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – and pushed the Pole all the way before holding off a late charge from Germany’s Tim Ole Naske to take second place.

Lightweight sculler Mottram was in the outside lane after finishing third in yesterday’s quarter-finals but stayed focussed on his own race and sat in the top three throughout to book his final place.

Barras had looked impressive when winning yesterday’s quarter-final and got off to a strong start again as he, Wegrzycki-Szymczyk and Naske quickly opened up a healthy lead over the field.

A big kick by Barras in the third 500m saw him edge away from the German and move level with Wegrzycki-Szymczyk before briefly taking the lead with 400m to go.

The Pole responded and was able to regain the advantage but Barras stayed hot on his tail. Naske also put in a sprint in the closing stages but Barras was able to hold on to second place by seven-hundredths of a second.

Sam Mottram on his way to third place

The top three positions in the lightweight men’s single semi-final were also determined fairly early on as Germany’s Jonathan Rommelmann, Alexis Lopez Garcia of Mexico and Mottram put ground between themselves and the chasing pack.

Mottram and Lopez Garcia were neck and neck with 500m to go as they chased down Rommelmann but the Mexican was finally able to push through and take the lead. Rommelmann held on for second, with Mottram safely joining them in the final.

Barras and Mottram, both coached by Clive Cooper, will race again on Friday. Thursday sees the first five U23 finals for GB crews – the women’s four at 3pm BST; men’s coxed four at 3.15pm BST; lightweight women’s quad at 3.30pm BST; lightweight men’s quad at 4.15pm BST; and men’s four at 4.45pm BST.

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Sir David Tanner, British Rowing’s Performance Director and Overall Team Leader in Rotterdam, said “This is a key year for our Under 23s as we look towards the Tokyo Olympic cycle. Our rowers have the chance to impress at the Championships and stake a claim to a step on the Olympic ladder for 2020.”

Of the 57 rowers selected, 26 have competed at the championships in the past and can boast 13 medals between them.

A further 12 rowers have previously represented Great Britain at the World Junior Championships, including two history-making gold-medallists – Jess Leyden and Gavin Horsburgh – of whom Horsburgh will be making his U23 debut when the regatta takes place from August 21-28.

Leyden – who became the first Brit to win an international women’s single scull title at the 2013 World Juniors – was fourth in the single at the World U23 Championships in 2014 and has no shortage of experience having raced in the senior women’s quadruple scull during the past two seasons, the boat missing out on Olympic qualification by two places.

She will team up in the women’s double with Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, who made an impressive senior debut in the single at this year’s European Championships and returns for a third successive World U23s.

Another rower with senior experience is Sam Mottram, who raced with the lightweight men’s quad at last year’s World Championships a month after winning silver in the same boat at the World U23s – one of six medals won by GB in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He will contest the lightweight single this time.

This year’s lightweight quad includes Horsburgh, part of the first-ever GB men’s quad to win a gold medal at a global championships during last year’s World Juniors in Rio. He is joined by newcomers Oliver Varley, Hugo Coussens and Matthew Curtis.

Jess Leyden

Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne

Sam Mottram

Ed Fisher, Benjamin Reeves, Alastair Douglass and Jonathan Jackson have been named in the lightweight men’s four for a second successive year and will be looking to get on the podium again and step up a notch having won bronze in 2015.

The open men’s four are no strangers to the World U23s either, having made nine previous appearances between them.  Lewis McCue – going to a fourth successive championships – and James Johnston both won silver in the boat last year and are joined this time by Tom George and James Rudkin, who finished fourth in the men’s pair in Plovdiv.

The women’s four contains two medallists from 2015 in Rowan McKellar, who won silver in the pair, and Hattie Taylor, who won bronze in the eight. They are joined by two former World Juniors, Lauren Kedar and Saskia Budgett.

Georgia Francis, who won silver with the eight in 2014 and raced in the double last year, will make her latest U23 appearance in the women’s quad alongside Lucy Burgess, Ruth Siddorn and Kyra Edwards, a silver-medallist in the quad at last year’s World Junior Championships.

Susannah Duncan was a team-mate of Edwards in Rio, winning her second World Junior medal in the process.  Both she and Mary Wilson will make their U23 debuts in the lightweight women’s quad, alongside Ellie Lewis – a bronze-medallist in the boat in 2013 – and Maddie Arlett.

In the women’s eight are Emily Ford and Holly Hill, who won bronze with the four last year, plus World Junior medallists Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne – Mathilda’s younger sister – and Anna Thornton. Alice Bowyer, Chloe Brew, Madelaine Badcott and Heidi Long complete a crew coxed by Sasha Adwani.

The men’s eight also contains two World Junior medallists in Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Matthew Benstead, as well as Calum Irvine, Tim Livingstone, David Bewicke-Copley, Sholto Carnegie, Robert Hurn, Arthur Doyle and cox Ian Middleton.

Harry Leask and Andrew Joel continue in the men’s quad for a second successive year, joined this time by Harry Glenister and 2014 World Junior medallist Rowan Law.

Tom Barras, who has been part of the quad for the past couple of years, has been the top U23 sculler this season and goes in the men’s single.

Rory Gibbs and cox Harry Brightmore, who were in the eight in 2015, will contest the men’s coxed four alongside Christopher Heywood, Michael Glover and Michael Aldridge, while debutants Oliver Hines and Graham Ord form the men’s pair.

This year’s World U23s are taking place alongside both the Senior and Junior World Championships, with more than 100 GB rowers in total competing on the Willem-Alexander Baan rowing course during an action-packed week.

Click here to see the Senior squad and here to see the Junior team.

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