SCHOOL rowers warmed up for the National Schools championships with two great races at a top event, a session with one of the world’s top coaches and international success for a crew member.

Monmouth School RC is celebrating its 150th anniversary, and 11-time Cambridge Boat Race chief and two-time Olympic gold medal coach Robin Williams, from Chepstow, dropped down to the Wye where he learnt to row to run a coaching workshop and put the 1st eight through its paces.

Racing in their brand new state-of-the-art German-built Empacher 8, named after Robin’s former school coach John W Hartland, the crew had set a searing 2km time of six minutes two seconds at the prestigious Nottingham City Regatta just four days earlier, where they finished second in U18 8s against some of the country’s top juniors before winning the open 8s event.

And that came a week after strokeman Iwan Hadfield made his Great Britain debut with a two-medal haul at the Munich International Junior Regatta.

The 18-year-old took silver and bronze in the GB junior eight and four as he targets a place in the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championships on the Tokyo Olympic course in August.

In the eights event, GB took on crews from Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Germany, and came home just a length back on the top German crew in silver, while the fours saw his crew take bronze by just 0.4secs.

“Munich was an incredible experience,” said Iwan, who has made the step up from representing Wales at the Home International Regatta in 2018.

“Winning my first medal was a pretty good feeling and it was a very proud moment to win two medals in my first international event for GB.”

A week later at Nottingham Regatta, his Wye eight chased home former Henley winners Abingdon for second in the junior eights ahead of top rowing schools Kings College, Radley, Shiplake and King’s Chester, before going out and beating Latymer Upper and City of Oxford to the open eights title. The U16 eight also did well, finishing fourth in their final.

They weren’t the only Wye boats to taste sccess on the two-time world championships course, with Monmouth RC’s veterans in action 24 hours later.

Colin Lewis, Nick Hooton, Paul Bezani and Jonathan Keyte took the Masters over-55 coxless fours from Nottingham, RAF and Norwich crews, and placed second in the coxed event steered by Kathryn Lewis, a length behind Bedford.

Liz Lewis and Karen Stewart-Woods took the women’s over-55 pairs by 1L from York, and the duo placed second with Sam Tod and Gail Adams in over-55 fours, while Helen Tilley, Dawn Evans, Gabby Miles and Dawn Brace grabbed second to Norwich in the over-50 quads.

There was also success for young Wye rowers at Bristol Avon Regatta, with 13 trophies.

Monmouth Comprehensive grabbed no less than 10 titles, with Leon Handley, Finlay Waters, Tom Heath, Tom Smith beating Bryanston to the U18 quads; Arwen van der Horst, Mia Boycott, Katie Kearsey and Martha Waterstone grabbing the girls’ event from Avon; and Talia Gould and Josie Harrison winning U18 girls’ pairs from Monkton.

Tom Smith and Rowan Kohler-Hoon beat Bryanston to U18 boys’ doubles; while Tom Carter, George Knight, Tom Powell, Jack Bufton and cox Cameron Turner were U15 quad winners by a canvas from Wycliffe; and Kezia McCann, Margy Farmer-Kindell, Beth Crossley, Megan Clifton and Cassie de st Croix took the U15 girls’ title from Pangbourne.

And their other winners were Tom Powell and Jack Bufton (U15 doubles); Peaches Hale and Laura Willis (U15 girls’ doubles); Vena-Rose Saunders, Kate Rogers, Halle Unsworth, Harriet Morgan and cox Cameron Turner (U14 girls’ quads); and Halle Unsworth and Harriet Morgan (U14 girls’ doubles).

Monmouth School for Girls also tasted success, with their girls’ U18 eight and U18 fours both beating Pangbourne in their finals by the same 1L margin, and their U16 four beating Monkton Combe by 3L.