ROYAL Grammar School Worcester's rowers experienced mixed fortunes at the National Championships in Glasgow.

Six of the 10 boats entered reached the finals but three of them were thwarted in their medal ambitions by mishaps.

The first final was the junior 16 coxless pair, an event which the school had won twice in the last three years.

Chris Bellamy and Ben Kell produced their best form to take bronze in fine style.

The two pairs who beat them were all members of the Great Britain under 16s team.

But subsequent races did not go so smoothly. Zo Thompson had won two medals at the national schools and was second favourite to win the girls' junior 15 sculls.

Thompson, lying third, was well-placed to strike for silver or gold when a muscle injury in her leg virtually brought her to a standstill.

She battled on bravely, despite the pain, to finish sixth and was only 11 seconds outside the medal placings.

Next came the junior 16 coxless four as Bellamy and Kell, joined by Will Jehring and Charlie Greenway, had just half-an-hour to recover.

The race developed into a battle for bronze with an unknown composite crew.

After struggling with the steering, the rudder connection broke with 500 metres to go and the RGS crew veered off the course to finish fourth.

Worse was to come for the junior 18 coxed four who had finished second in the schools head in March.

They worked their way up from fourth to second place and were challenging for gold when, with just 250m to go, their rudder sheered off.

The cox was helpless as the boat crossed three lanes and hit the crew in fourth position, meaning they were disqualified.

It was a bitter end to a fine season for Nick Szmigin, Tom Clark, Nick Fenton, Joe Price and cox Alex Huband who had registered wins at Shrewsbury and Marlow regattas.

There was medal success for one other member, however, as Tom White won bronze in the junior 18 coxless fours for the Welsh junior squad.

White secured a Wales place for the Home Countries International.