WORLD junior silver medal rower Violet Holbrow-Brooksbank was on fire on the Thames and the 2012 Olympic lake in March’s championship series, adding two more national titles to her trophy cabinet in two days.
The Ross Rowing Club Academy graduate helped her Wycliffe quadruple scull to the National Schools' Head championship girls' title on the reverse Boat Race stretch in the capital, before proving just as dominant 48 hours later on Dorney Lake in the Junior Sculling Head.
GB and Wales star Violet raced to coxless four world U19 silver on the Paris Olympic course last year, while her 2023 Henley Women's Regatta-winning boat were also named British Rowing Junior Crew of the Year.
And the teenager looks well on course for another great regatta season after signing off on the winter head season in style.
Racing over four-miles on a fast-flowing Thames in the Schools' Head a week last Wednesday (March 20), Wycliffe stormed home 34 seconds clear of their nearest Marlow rivals in the 29-strong class, crossing in 18mins 15secs to take a giant 62 seconds off the course record.
Among the girls' boats in the 400-strong field, only the two fastest championship girls' 8s went quicker, Headington and Shiplake, by just six and five seconds respectively.
And two days later in the 500-boat Junior Sculling Head over two lengths of the 2km Dorney course, Violet’s boat proved unstoppable again, racing home 29 seconds clear of second-placed Shiplake in 12.35 to take the Junior Girls’ title.
She wasn’t the only Wye rower celebrating, with 2022 Oxford Boat Race-winning cox Jack Tottem steering Leander to victory in the 300-boat men’s 8s Head of the River Race over the reverse Boat Race course the following day.
Old Monmothian Jack had his hands on the tiller as the Pink Palace looked to wrest the men’s 8s title from the grip of Oxford Brookes for the first time outright since 2015, with the two dead-heating in 2018.
Leander set off hard on Brookes' heels as second starters on a fast flowing stream.
And they slowly cut the margin to finish 5.1 seconds up in 16mins 26.7secs to reclaim the Fairbairn Trophy, shaving 1.4secs off Brookes' 2023 record.