A TOP-class college rower has made a splash by being invited to a training camp for the Great Britain U23 rowing squad.

Robbie Prosser-Wrench from Crickhowell, who first launched out at Monmouth School for Boys, helped his Bristol University boat make the semi-finals at Henley Royal Regatta in August.

And his strong training performances have identified him as a potential member of the team to race at the World Rowing U23 Championships in Varese, Italy, next summer.

He has just attended a squad land training camp at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, where he was reunited with former school crew mate Iwan Hadfield, currently rowing with several Olympians at California Berkeley University in the USA, and their Wye coach Louise Hart.

The duo were part of the Monmouth School rowing squad that celebrated the club’s 150th anniversary by winning 1st 8s at the National Schools’ Regatta on the London 2012 Olympic lake in 2019, and also landed bronze in Championships fours, before taking the scalp of US seeds Kent School at Henley.

Iwan went on to stroke the GB junior eight to world U18 bronze in Tokyo later that year, and was also on board the four that clinched bronze for GB at the U23 World Championships in the Czech Republic this year.

Both made the semis at Henley in August, Robbie stroking his Bristol boat to a 3 1/2L win over Exeter in the first round, followed by a 1 3/4L win over Surrey University.

Then in a classic semi-final over the 2,200m timber-boomed course, opponents Newcastle University led at the top of the Island by a few feet before Bristol edged in front.

Newcastle then hit back before the 600m Barrier-mark where the crews were level and began to slowly move up to lead by just 1/2L at the half-way Fawley mark.

The gap had grown to 1L at the Mile Post, but Bristol were still in the race, Prosser lifting the rating to 38 along the Enclosures to regain an overlap.

Newcastle were at full tilt trying to hold them off, but Bristol just ran out of water missing out by 1/2L.