DART TOTNES pair Meyrick Tooley and James Lovering have become only the second West region rowers to claim a medal at the Inter-Regional Junior Championships.

The U16 double scull of Tooley and Lovering progressed to the A final at Nottingham's National Watersports Centre, and went on to pick up a bronze medal – just missing out on silver in a tight finish.

This was only the region's second ever medal in the seven years the event has been running, so was an excellent result.

The Dart Totnes duo were among a team of junior rowers who were selected to represent the region at Nottingham after impressing in the January time trials.

The team was made up of juniors from Exeter, Kingsley, Dart Totnes and Plymouth Rowing Clubs, and they competed against teams from 11 other Amateur Rowing Association regions.

The juniors faced typically tough conditions on the Holme Pierrepont course, with each crew racing in heats, and then progressing onto either the A or B final.

The performance of Tooley and Lovering was undoubtedly the highlight, although the medal tally could have been higher had injuries not prevented the region's two other main medal hopes from taking part.

All the other West juniors progressed to B finals, where there were some other good results, including a first place (seventh overall) in the girls' U15 single sculls for Alice Jackson of Kingsley School.

There were second places (eighth overall) for the Plymouth U15 quadruple scull and the Dart Totnes girls' U16 coxless quadruple scull of Louise Hawkyard, Maya Kennedy-Trepat, Jessica Phillips and Devon Cleal.

Third places (ninth overall) went to the Exeter girls' U14 quadruple scull and the Dart Totnes girls' U15 coxed quadruple scull of Jessamy Larcombe, Jade Knight, Emily Bibby and cox Chelsie Cleal.