CRICKHOWELL oarsman Robbie Prosser will be going for gold this week after being picked to race for Great Britain in the Under-23 World Rowing Championships in Italy.

The Bristol University student, who took up rowing at Monmouth School for Boys on the Wye, has been selected in the coxed four for the event in Varese and will be striving to make his mark on the world stage.

Competition will be tough with rowers from 55 nations taking part, including squads from Germany, Italy and the USA.

The former Monmouth School for Boys’ student was in the school 1st VIII in 2019 that won their category at both the Schools’ Head of the River and the National Schools’ Regatta.

Last May he won three titles at the British Universities Championships in Nottingham, and then impressed with wins at London’s prestigious Metropolitan Regatta on the Olympic lake.

Robbie is the third member of the 2019 crew to go on to major success after leaving school, following Iwan Hadfield and cox Jack Tottem.

Iwan stroked the GB 8 to world junior bronze on the Tokyo Olympic lake in 2019, took world U23 bronze last year and then helped the university of California Berkeley to the top 8s rowing prize in the US last month.

And Jack, who won medals with the GB junior team at the European team championships in Italy in 2019, steered Oxford to Boat Race victory last April.

Master in Charge of Rowing at Monmouth School for Boys, John Griffiths, is looking forward to adding Robbie’s name to the school’s honours board.

“Robbie finally made selection after trials at GB Rowing’s centre at Caversham, following a very successful year in which he picked up gold medals at BUCS Regatta and other major regattas.

“This is a huge achievement for Robbie because he was slightly too old to trial for GB in his final year at school and has had to work even harder to fight his way through the system.”

The championships run from last Monday until Sunday (July 31).

To follow his progress, go to worldrowing.com/event/2022-world-rowing-under-23-championships