A STRING of county enthusiasts are heading to the USA later this month for the 25th annual World Indoor Rowing Championships.

Members of the Old Wrecks club, including Hanley Swan's prolific Anna Bailey, will go for gold in Boston against more than 2,000 other athletes.

Neil Mackintosh, of Martin Hussingtree, near Worcester, and Pershore athlete Rob Buckley also cross the Atlantic hoping for glory on Sunday, February 25.

Mackintosh and Buckley, among 80 competitors from the Great Britain team, will race over 2,000m on a Concept 2 Indoor Rower in a bid to beat their fellow competitors.

They are two of more than 80 in the GB team heading to Boston for the event on Sunday, February 25.

Top Formula One human performance coach Bernie Shrosbree, coach of the GB team, is anticipating an impressive medal haul.

Shrosbree said: "The team we're taking to Boston is very strong and I'm hoping we're going to put the rest of the world to shame and come away with plenty of medals.

"In 2005, the GB team came home with 12 medals, including eight golds. It's a tall order to beat but I think we can do it and it would be great to do it at the 25th anniversary event."

Buckley won his place at Boston following a gold medal at the British Indoor Rowing Championships last year.

Meanwhile, at the Scottish equivalent in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, recently, a small group from the Old Wrecks club impressed. Bailey was still feeling the after-effects of her record-breaking row with an injured wrist last week at Manchester.

She had to revert to rowing one-handed for the second half of the women's 50 years and over race but still managed to collect gold in a predictably slower time of seven minutes 39.8 seconds.

Alex Brown put in his best time for two seasons, winning the men's 50 and over race convincingly in 6-35.0.

Kevin Anderson had another terrific row, just timing his final sprint three or four strokes too late and coming a close second in 6-28.3 in the men's 40 and over.

Rob Smith, of Fletcher Sport Science, had a good steady row, finishing fourth in 6-39.2 in the men's 30 and over.