OXFORDSHIRE rower Frances Houghton stormed to victory in the women’s singles event at the GB Rowing Team Winter Assessment in Boston, Lincolnshire at the weekend.

The double Olympic silver medallist, from Wheatley, covered the 5km course in a time of 20mins 58.78secs, eight seconds clear of Beth Rodford.

Leander’s Vicky Thornley, from Henley, was third.

Houghton said afterwards: “At the end I had zero left. I have been working really, really hard and to see my name at the top of the results sheet is fantastic.”

Oxford Brookes University oarsman Peter Chambers won the men’s lightweight race, ahead of Leander’s Jamie Kirkwood.

There were three Wallingford women in the top ten of their lightweight singles event. Elizabeth Polgreen was fourth, Miriam Jones-Walters eighth and Brianna Stubbs tenth.

In the men’s pairs, there was victory for world and Olympic champion Alex Gregory, representing Leander, and Oxford Brookes’s Matt Tarrant.

Mo Sbihi and Scott Durant (Molesey/Oxford Brookes) were second, with the Oxford university pair of Karl Hudspith and Constantine Louloudis third.

It is two years since the last full December Assessment, with all the GB squad rowers involved.