WORCESTER Rowing Club members Zoe Johnson, Jeremy Richardson and Pete Crozier returned from the Belgium International Rowing Regatta with a number of medals.

Johnson, a student at Worcester Sixth Form College, and Wallingford Rowing Club's Isobel Drury won the women's junior pairs.

They triumphed by over six seconds against opposition from England, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Buoyed by their success, the duo turned their attention to racing in a Great Britain coxed eight.

It is a fast boat at the best of times but the crew took maximum advantage of the strong tail-wind to win in a time of 7 minutes 04.16 seconds which was a new course record.

A team from King's School Worcester finished second, while Hereford's Tracey Matthews was also involved in the event.

The junior eight then took on the adults, facing opposition that included boats with Commonwealth silver medallists, world champions and under 23 world medallists.

Against all odds, the junior crew finished in bronze position to give Johnson her third medal of the regatta.

In the men's coxless pairs event, Crozier and Richardson showed their experience and rowed well in the rough conditions to collect a silver medal.

They were narrowly defeated by the Nereus crew from Amsterdam.

In taking the silver medal, the Worcester pair beat crews from the Turkish Rowing Federation, the host club KR Sport Ghent and Lady Victoria, Ireland.

In the women's double sculls, Worcester's Claire Vincent, sculling with Natalie Miles from Rebecca Rowing Club, qualified easily for the finals.

But they struggled in difficult afternoon conditions to finish just out of the medals in fifth place on the first day and fourth on the second.