OXFORD Brookes followed their success at Henley by winning gold in Europe at the forefront of the British Universities team, writes John Wiggins.

In the week when the Brookes first eight were named national team of the year by the British Universities and Colleges Sport organisation, yet another tier of rowers stepped up for victory at the European Universities Regatta in Serbia.

Four of the five Brookes crews won gold medals.

Only four of the Henley-winning Temple eight were involved, Sam Nunn and Matt Hnatiw racing in the pair with Brendan Edwards and Gareth Syphas in the eight.

Stepping up from the vast high performance squad were Gavin McWilliams, Dylan Mitchell, Will Hall, Ben Murphy, Matthewas well asand the coxless four of Oliver Morgan, Oliver Ayres, Luke Hillier and Ben O’Neill.

The Brookes women’s eight (Grace Macdonald, Emily Herridge, Sophia Heath, Christie Duff, Mirella McGee, Aisling Humphries-Griffiths, Madeleine Dobson, Johanne Gannon and Jess Brown) also won gold and their women’s pair (Zoe Taylor and Aly Vogelzang) a silver.

Collectively, this was better than any other nation, let alone a single university.

The British team retained the EUSA team trophy.

Oxford University were fourth in the A final for the men’s lightweight coxless four.

l Two boys from Radley College, Ned Rae Smith and Theo Metcalf, featured in the successful eight, who contributed to an 8-5 win for Britain’s juniors in their annual match against France at London Docklands.

l There were two notable medal-winning performances for Oxfordshire crews in the British Junior Championships in Nottingham

Jack Halsall and Ed Robson, from Wallingford RC, gained a silver medal in the J16 boys pair, as did the Falcon RC twins, Rory and Patrick Plunket, in the double sculls, missing gold by less than a second.

Wallingford’s young J16 girls’ quad won their B final while Abingdon RC’s J15s, with some of the noisiest supporters, reached the B finals in the singles, doubles and quads.

Oxford University’s lightweight women raced at Molesey Regatta with success for Rachel Anderson in the novice single and along with Jenny Tran in the double.

Moyo Tian and Linda van Bijsterveldt won in the IM3 pair.