European Championships: Scott earns silver in Italy with Nixon and Shorten securing bronze

Hannah Scott (second from left), Lucy Glover and sisters Mathilda and Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne won quadruple sculls silver for GB in Varese

Northern Ireland rowers Hannah Scott, Holly Nixon and Rebecca Shorten have won medals for Great Britain at the European Championships in Italy.

Scott, making her senior international debut, helped the GB boat win silver in the women's quadruple sculls.

Enniskillen's Nixon and Saskia Budgett clinched bronze in the women's double sculls after a strong last 500 metres.

Shorten was part of Britain's bronze medal success in the women's four on the final day of the Varese event.

Coleraine's Scott, 21, had an impressive regatta alongside sisters Mathilda and Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne and Lucy Glover as they came within a few feet of becoming European champions.

The quartet were third at the halfway point but rowed confidently past Germany and came with 0.42 secs of chasing down defending champions Netherlands.

Scott, a world double-silver medal winner for GB at under-23 level, was studying at Princeton University, where she is a member of their highly successful collegiate rowing programme, when the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic happened.

Ennisillen rower Holly Nixon (right) has been out of action since 2017 because of illness

She was allowed to return home to Coleraine and continue her studies online before moving to Caversham in the autumn when she received an invite to train with the GB Olympic squad.

The Varese championships marked a superb return to action for Nixon after the long-term illness that has kept her out of action since winning a world championship bronze in 2017.

Nixon and Budgett produced a spectacular final 500m to pip the Netherlands for third spot in the women's double sculls.

Romania dominated the race to take gold ahead of Lithuania but in their first regatta together the Great Britain duo, beaten by the Dutch in Friday's heat, gradually reeled them in and edged them out of the podium positions with the final stroke by just sixth-hundredths of a second.

Great Britain have yet to qualify for the Olympics in this boat class and that opportunity will come at Lucerne next month.

The new combination in the women's four, Belfast woman Shorten, Karen Bennett, Harriet Taylor and Rowan McKellar lay in second place at the halfway point of the final and looked set to challenge the Netherlands for gold.

Ireland win gold and silver in Varese

However, they had to settle for third place with the Ireland quartet of Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty very impressive in the final 750m as they came with a second of catching the Dutch on the line.

It was a superb silver medal and a massive boost to the Irish four who will now head to the final qualifying regatta in Lucerne as favourites to clinch one of the remaining two places for the Olympics.

The Great Britain women's eight, including 27 year-old Rebecca Edwards from Aughnacloy in County Tyrone, finished in fourth place.

They lost contact with the race for medals during the middle 1000m but battled back in the closing stages and were within half a length of Russia at the finish. Romania took the European title.

In the men's double sculls world silver medallists Ronan Byrne and Banbridge man Philip Doyle put the disappointment of missing out on a place in the final by rowing down the Italian duo in the final 500m to win the B Final and finish seventh overall.

The Banbridge/Cork combination will expect better performances as they continue their training towards the Tokyo Olympics.

There was further Irish success for Rio 2016 silver medallist Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy as they took gold in the lightweight men's double sculls.

The 2019 world champions cemented their position as favourites for Olympic gold in Tokyo as they produced their traditional strong second half of the race to overtake Italy and Germany and were pulling away at the finish.