WYE rowers have raced to top time-trial success in the last few days – on both sides of the Atlantic.
Olympic bronze medallist Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne teamed up again with Paris 2024 partner Becky Wilde to beat GB gold medal team-mates to the Women's Championship Double Sculls title in record style in the world's biggest race – the Head of the Charles in Boston, USA, on Saturday.
And that followed Monmouth RC’s Al Butler, 48, partnering Hereford RC partner Jamie Coombes to third place overall in the national Pairs Head on the Thames in London – 11 years after the duo achieved the same result.
Mathilda, from St Weonards, who has trained at Monmouth RC while home as a GB rower in the past, became the first ever British mum to win an Olympic rowing medal when she stormed to bronze in Paris, having had son Freddie in summer 2022.
She fought her way back into the British team this year, and teamed with new cap Wilde took the second and last slot for Paris in May's last-chance qualifying regatta in Switzerland before pushing on to Olympic glory.
And the Leander/Upper Thames duo stormed it again in the US, taking class victory over the 3-mile Head of the Charles, which rivals the city's marathon as its biggest sporting event, attracting 12,000 rowers in 2,600 boats from 825 clubs on the water, and 400,000 spectators along the banks over three days of racing.
A superb start in their 22-boat event saw them reach the first timing mark in 4mins 02.8secs, 3.6 seconds quicker than US U23 international Sophia Calabrese and US international rock climber-turned rower Sera Busse, with GB Olympic quadruple scull champions Lola Anderson and Hannah Scott third six seconds back.
The lead was seven seconds at the next mark (9.41.8) with their team-mates another two seconds back.
And there was only one winner barring accidents at the final Cambridge Boat Club timing mark, reached in 14.40.5, where the gap was 11 seconds to the Americans and 16 to the Leander duo.
And three minutes later on the line, Mathilda and Becky were 14 seconds clear of Green Racing Vermont duo Calabrese and Busse, crossing in a course record 17.40.8, with their GB team-mates 25 seconds back pipped for bronze by a second by Irish internationals Mags Cremen and Aoife Casey.
Mathilda wasn't the only Wye rower medalling, with Monmouth RC's Jonathan Ferris helping London club Quintin take silver in the over-70 men's 8s in 18.02, 18 seconds beind Melbourne winners Upper Yarra.
The week before on the Tideway in London, duos pushed out for the annual Pairs Head from the Boat Race finish to Harrods Wall, just beyond Hammersmith Bridge, a distance also of 2 3/4 miles.
And Butler and Coombes stormed home third in near perfect conditions in 13.14 just 8.3secs behind Henley Diamonds singles semi-finalist Tim Wilkinson and his Greenbank Falmouth partner Lex Kerr, who won by just a tenth of a second from City of Oxford duo Clifford and Swiss.
The Wye double also scooped the Intermediate class pennannt by 25 seconds, with veteran Olympic medallists James Cracknell and Alex Partridge another second back in their over-42 class winning pair.
Monmouth RC duo Ben Morgan and George Knight also impressed, taking second in the Club doubles class and 53rd overall in 14.12.5, just 3.7secs behind the Thames RC winners.
Between the two in 49th, former Monmouth Comprehensive pupil Sarah Lewis also retained the mixed Masters B (over-36) double sculls title with Falmouth partner Lee Clarke, winning by 25 seconds in 14.09.5.
Eleanor Lawrence-Preston, who has recently swapped Monmouth Comprehensive for Wycliffe College, came fifth in junior girls' doubles in 14.56, while fellow Wales junior cap Ailsa Whitehead, who has also switched from Haberdashers Monmouth, finished 13th in 15.18.