WYE rower Charlotte Gill led her Wales women’s crew to victory in the Home Countries Regatta with an inspired piece of racing in Cork.

Two wins for the women’s seniors were the highlights for the Welsh team as they crossed the Irish Sea, with the Monmouth rower’s women’s coxed four powering through from third to retain the title won in Glasgow last year, while two races later the women’s lightweight double hit the front with 750m to race.

Ben Pritchard also took the Para men’s singles, while there were five second places, including for fellow Monmouth rower Pippa England and an agonising near miss for twins John and Robert Davies in the junior men’s pairs.

The women’s coxed four of Gill, Kate Silverthorne, Maddie Archer, Ella Tepper and cox Richard Summers went through 500m in third, and were still 1 1/2L down on Scotland at half-way after pushing into second past Ireland.

But they turned the race on its head in the third 500m, with former Monmouth School for Girls pupil Gill in the stroke seat driving them past the Scots to lead by 3/4L with 500m to race.

And they came home 1 1/2L clear to retain the crown, which Silverthorne and Summers both helped win in 2017.

Just minutes later Rebekah Edgar and Lucy Iball repeated the formula in the women’s lightweight double, rowing through leaders England in the third quarter and racing away to win by a full 3L.

Monmouth School quartet Georg Pfennig, Ben Emes, Robbie Prosser-Wrench, Iwan Hadfield and Llandaff cox Megan Joyce led to half-way in the junior coxed fours before England forged in front.

And Pfennig, Prosser-Wrench, Hadfield and Joyce then joined clubmate Anthony Wright, Llandaff’s John Davies, Hampton’s Bobby Nur, and Shrewsbury duo Joe Shaw and Henry Fletcher in another battle for dominance with the English. Wales led by three feet at the 500m mark before England’s bows hit the front, and although the new leaders moved clear, the Welsh crew raced home a clear second.

Monmouth School for Girls pupils Stephanie du Toit, Sophia Frankel and cox Abigail Potter, plus seven Monmouth Comprehensive School pupils - Tom Brice, Leon Handley, Sam Morgan, Katie Kearsey, Josephine Harrison, Mia Boycott and Arwen Van Der Horst – were also selected for the Wales junior team, achieving thirds and fourths in their races.

Welsh twins John and Robert Davies twins fought out an epic battle with the Irish junior men’s pair, who pushed their bows in front with 750m to race. There was just six foot in it at the 1500m mark, and it was nip and tuck to the line, with the Irish just getting the better of it by 1/3L.

Former Monmouth School for Girls pupil England and women’s lightweight pairs partner Marlie Carter-Edwards raced home second behind England, while Cardiff University’s Sam Bannister squeezed out Ireland’s Keelan Mannix for second in the men’s singles by 1/2L after getting his bows in front with 600m to race.

The HCI saw two new trophies presented by Wales – the John Hartland junior men’s team trophy named after the sport’s former national chief and Monmouth School rowing coach and won in the first year by England, and the Griffiths Family trophy for outstanding volunteering at the event, which was awarded straight back to Monmouth’s John and Sue Griffiths as the first recipients.