AFTER a busy summer season, attention turns to America with 15 local hopes donning the Great Britain vest for the World Championships at the Sarasota-Bradenton Lake, Florida, writes John Wiggins.

And on the strength of the opening rounds, the weekend finals will feature most of the Oxfordshire rowers.

On completion of the heats and Tuesday’s repechage races, all had advanced.

Many of those competing are seasoned medal-winners at senior, U23 or junior level – none more so than Ollie Cook.

This year, he rowed in the Oxford University Boat Race-winning eight and was in the 2016 world championship gold-medal coxed pair.

The 2017 pair is steered by Oxford Brookes University’s Harry Brightmore – his first year in the senior team.

Another Brookes rower seeking medals is Katherine Douglas in the women’s eight racing, when she is alongside multiple Oxford Boat Race winner, Anastasia Chitty and a 2016 gold medallist, Fiona Gammond, a former pupil at Headington School.

Radley College are celebrating the first senior selection for Tom George in the pair, while Abingdon School, in addition to old boy Cook, have Jamie Copus in the lightweight double scull and Matt Rossiter in the flagship men’s four.

Oxford Brookes, as ever, have multiple interests as Matt Tarrant, in the four with Rossiter, is joined by Joel Cassells in the lightweight pair and the hugely-experienced Pete Chambers seeking to add to his Olympic silver with a medal in the quad scull.

Wallingford RC have a continued presence in the women’s lightweight quad with Eli Piggott and clubmate Gemma Hall, who are under the guidance of club coach, Ben Reed.

Recent Oxford University graduate Anna Corderoy coxes the mixed Para four.

The lightweight women’s quad and men’s coxed pair moved directly into the A final, as did the lightweight men’s pair, who finished third in their repechage.

Comfortably through the heats to the semi-finals were the men’s four, coxless pair and lightweight quad.

They were joined by Copus’s lightweight double after a dominant performance winning their repecharge.

In eights, both the men and women will need to race again with only heat winners progressing direct to the final but each look strong enough to achieve this.

l The Milton Keynes Regatta was held over 600m on the Caldecotte Lake where Wolfson College's Kevin Schlegel and Sophie Schauman swept aside the frustration of being losing finallists at the Oxford City Regatta and duly won the novice mixed doubles.