Members of Lakeland Rowing Club have claimed gold and silver medals at the World Masters Rowing Championships in Banyoles, Spain.

Five members of Lakeland Rowing Club have been competing at Banyoles where Matthew Pincent and Steve Redgrave won gold in the 1992 Olympic Games.

Competitors from 27 years old can qualify to row as a Masters rower and they compete in 5 year age bands against crews of approximately their own age.

This year more than 3,700 athletes from 747 clubs from 54 countries took part with all races are over 1,000m.

Nick Cowan, retired Cockermouth GP, and Sam Ayers of Bodyfit Cumbria, both from Eaglesfield have recently returned from winning gold in the World Masters Rowing Championships.

Asked about their gold winning performance, Nick said: “We’d worked very hard to get back on track in the past few months and to get this result we were absolutely delighted but it was still  something of a relief.

“In fact we both feel that we just about got away with it.

“We know how the boat feels when it is going well and it wasn’t our best row.

“It does mean that we have work to do so next time we hope to go faster.”

They race in a double scull in the mixed Masters category coming out on top against nearly 80 other competitors in their category.

Nick and Sam have both been plagued with injuries in the past 18 months and have only been getting back to competing again since Easter.

The annual event has featured Sam and Nick on the top step on four occasions.

Over the five days of racing the duo both raced in their single sculls.

They were then joined Celia Whittam and Gordon Jack, also members of the Lakeland Rowing Club in quad, a four person boat.

The boat went well and came in a very close second to an Australian crew.

Beginners, or returning rowers, coxes, coaches or prospective sponsors who would like to know more about opportunities at Lakeland Rowing Club can visit the website here or find the club on Facebook by searching for Lakeland Rowing Club.