COUNTY sculler Sarah Cowburn was just squeezed out of the medals at the World Junior Rowing Championships in China, finishing a best-ever fourth by a Great Britain girl singler.

The Worcester Rowing Club racer finished in the toughest position of all, one off the medals, but she and coach Paul Sterckx can be proud of a fantastic effort on the Beijing Olympic Shunyi regatta lake.

Having battled home ahead of Lithuania's Donata Vistartaite to win her semi-final, the 18-year-old saw the east European turn the tables in the final to grab bronze behind China's Welwel Zhu and Germany's Tina Manker.

Cowburn made her customary fast start to lie third at the 500 metres mark, where the Chinese sculler led by two lengths and the Lithuanian had a few feet on the GB racer.

In the sweltering 30C degree heat, Manker pushed through from fourth to second in the second quarter and at half-way less than a third of a length covered the German, Lithuanian and British scullers, with Tale Gjoertz and Canada's Lauren Wilkinson just a length back and Zhu still out in front.

Cowburn desperately tried to hold on to Vistartaite in the third quarter and passed 1500m still overlapping her boat.

But try as she might to get back on terms, the GB sculler couldn't quite push back into the medal frame, finishing two lengths off bronze.

China took gold in seven minutes 53.66 seconds by two lengths from the German who had a third of a length on the Lithuanian. Cowburn crossed in 8.05.45, two lengths up on the fifth-placed Norwegian singler who had another three lengths on the Canadian.

GB rowing supremo David Tanner said: "This was a superb result for Sarah. And probably one she would never have dreamt of achieving before coming to the worlds."

King's Worcester's Andrew Finlay bounced back from the disappointment of failing to make the men's eights final by helping his GB crew take the B' final for seventh place.