WYE sculler Eleanor Lawrence-Preston raced to a brilliant bronze at the World U19 Championships in Lithuania – stroking the GB girls' quadruple scull onto the podium at just 16 years of age.

It was the third year running that a former Monmouth Comprehensive School student has medalled at the global age-group showcase after successive silvers for Violet Holbrow-Brooksbank.

And it caps an amazing year for Eleanor, who only turns 17 on Friday (August 22), having also won the Henley Women's and Henley Royal Regatta quad scull titles with her Wycliffe boat.

Crewed with Lauren Kennedy, Charlotte Van Der Wiele and Lily Anderson in Trakai, the Monmouth rower’s boat won their five-boat heat by nearly 2L from Italy and then made the six-boat final coming third in the semi just over a length behind Poland and 1/2L behind Romania.

And the 2k medal race proved a classic, with GB leading by inches from the Czech Republic and the Poles at 500m, and just 0.24 secs between them at halfway, where Poland led the Brits by just 0.08secs.

The eastern European pace setters then edged out to just over 1/2L from GB at the 3/4-way mark, with the Czechs just a canvas back and Germany overlapping in fourth.

And in a furious run-in to the line, the Brits and the Czechs crossed in identical times of 6.58.94 a length behind the Poles in gold, with GB just squeezed out of silver on the photo-finish by millimetres.

It was an amazing performance by Eleanor and her boat, and no doubt she'll be targeting more success at U19 level next year.

In a recent visit to Monmouth RC’s boathouse to show former schoolmates and her former Monmouth Comprehensive head coach Matt Royston her Henley Royal Regatta medal, she thanked them saying: “A red box doesn't just happen in one year, so I'd like to thank my old coaches at Monmouth Comprehensive for making me into the athlete I was when I first arrived at Wycliffe.”