JACK Tottem steered the Great Britain women's 8 to a brilliant gold at the third World Cup regatta on the Rotsee 'Lake of the Gods' in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Sunday.

The Old Monmothian Oxford Boat Race winner and 2025 world bronze medal steersman called them out fast to lead by a canvas at 500m from Australia, who had beaten GB in Seville in May.

And the lead was 3/4L at half-way with the Netherlands in third just feet down on the Aussies.

The Wye cox kept his crew edging out to go through 1500m with clear water, and despite a late surge from the Australians, GB had enough of an advantage to come home 1/3L up in six minutes 08.54 seconds, with the USA catching the Dutch for bronze just over a length back.

It proved a memorable day for Welsh rowers, with Katherine George – daughter of Old Monmothian Julian George – also on board the winning 8, matched by Cedol Dafydd in the GB men's quad scull and Paralympic and world singles champion Benjamin Pritchard.

Dafydd's fellow Welsh speaker Angahard Broughton from Llandaff RC also took a first World Cup medal with bronze in the GB women's four, while Matt Rowe struck silver in the men's 8.

They will heading back home for the world's most prestigious open rowing event this week, the six-day 187-year-old Henley Royal Regatta, where crews go head-to-head on a 2,112m upstream Thames course lined by timber booms.

Towards the end of the week, the event can attract riverside crowds of 100,000, with boats racing to a finish in front of the packed Stewards Enclosure.

The GB crews will be joined by other world rowing stars, including Olympic singles champion Olli Zeidler from Germany, bidding to win a fifth Diamond Sculls.

The Italian team are also coming in depth and will test GB's resolve in world rowing's oldest regatta prize, the Grand Challenge Cup for international 8s.

Old Monmothian James Goodwin coxed his imperial/Queen’s Tower crew to Grand Challenge Cup triumph in 1996, and will be enjoying a 30th anniversary row past down the course during Sunday's finals.

But regrettably, his old school Haberdashers’ Monmouth won't be involved competitively this year after a near miss in the Princess Elizabeth Cup school 8s qualifying time-trial, which was postponed from Friday to Saturday owing to 33C temperatures.

Racing in a 26-strong field over the regatta course against British, French, American and Australian boats, they needed to finish in the top 11 but just missed out in 13th some three seconds short.

Old Monmothian World U23 gold medallist Robbie Prosser will be going for glory though, racing for the world’s oldest club Leander in the Visitors Cup fours event.

His crew warmed up taking second out of 49 boats at the prestigious Marlow Regatta on the Dorney Olympic lake, finishing just half a second behind Oxford University’s Blues in the eight-boat A final.

Robbie, who was on board the impressive 2019 Monmouth School National Schools and Schools Head-medal-winning 8 alongside Devauden’s Tottem and fellow future World U23 champion Iwan Hadfield, is still looking for a first ever Henley medal red box.

And his 12-boat event includes top international opposition from Germany, the USA, Austria, and the Netherlands as well as top British rivals.