A UNIVERSITY student from Evesham is celebrating after winning a silver medal at the Under 23 World Rowing Championships in his first call-up for Great Britain.

Patrick Sullivan, 21, a former pupil at Prince Henry’s High School, has rowed for the University of London Boat Club for three years while studying earth sciences at University College London.

His selection for GB followed a series of trials starting last November and finishing just three weeks before the championships.

Sullivan was stroke man of the coxed four alongside London club-mate Josh Kent and rowers from the universities of Edinburgh, Newcastle and Oxford Brookes.

The crew spent two weeks on a training camp at the GB training facilities in Caversham before heading out for the world championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

The opening coxed four race did not give much cheer as the GB crew came last in their heat.

The winners Italy and USA went straight to the final with the rest having to race a repêchage to secure one of the last four places. 

But the GB crew turned things around when they got out of the blocks first and stayed out in front for the whole race.

With temperatures touching 37°C GB lined up alongside Italy, USA, Australia, France and Romania for one of the most exciting finals.

For the first 500 metres it was anyone’s race. France dropped off the pace by the one-kilometre mark with Italy and the USA leading and the other three crews less than half-a-boat length behind.

Coming into the last 500m the Italians pulled ahead and GB held third place half-a-length behind USA.

GB launched a big attack on USA passing them in the last 100m to secure silvers, finishing less than a length behind the Italians. 

Sullivan, who started rowing at Evesham, is at the International University Regatta in Chengdu, China, representing his club and resumes his studies in the autumn.

His medal completes a great year, having won the British University and Under 23 Championships and made the University Eights final at Henley Royal Regatta.