World U23 gold medal rower Robbie Prosser had an ‘oar-some’ time in Germany racing their national squad over 12km on the Kiel Canal.

The Crickhowell rower returned home from studying at top US rowing university California Berkeley to help the Wales men’s four to Home Countries victory on the London Olympic lake this summer.

And the 24-year-old, who helped set a world U23 coxed four record taking world age-group gold in Italy in 2022, was then called up to race in a GB development men’s eight with Wales crew mate Kai Schottmann of Llandaff RC in the Schleswig-Holstein Netz Cup, alongside fellow Welsh rower Toby Lassen.

Cheered on by around 80,000 spectators along the 12.7km course, it is one of the toughest side-by-side rowing races in the world, with the two German national squad boats finishing first and second in 36.41and 37.00 respectively, and GB third (37.41 min) over a minute ahead of the Netherlands boat.

The annual event made history this year with a first ever women’s international race in quadruple sculls, where the GB boat including Wales’ Heloise Wormleighton also coming third in 43.11 behind Germany in first and the Netherlands in second.

The crews had earlier taken on the Ergo Cup and the Rowing Sprint Cup – a short sprint over 350 metres.

In the rowing machine 500m competition, Germany 1 came home first in 1 1.19.8, followed by Germany 2 in 1.21.7 min, GB third in 1.22.5 min and the Dutch fourth in 1.24.0.

That was followed by the 350m sprint on the water, where the World Cup-winning German eight (49.30) narrowly beat their 2nds (49.53) in a photo-finish, with GB third (51.40) just squeezing out the Netherlands.