CANFORD School came away with two bronze medals as thousands of youngsters descended on Dorney Lake for the National Schools' Regatta.

The Dorset school took 12 crews made up of 58 pupils to the venue, which staged the rowing events at the London 2012 Olympics.

And Canford enjoyed a hugely successful weekend both in terms of medals earned and experience gained.

Getting on the podium were the senior girls’ coxed four and our J14B girls' coxed quad, who performed at the top of their respective games.

It was a superb effort from the youngsters against a string of top-class school and club crews, many of which row regularly on the Thames and longer stretches of water than the Stour.

The J15 girls' eight also performed admirably as they finished 12th in the country.

Elsewhere, the J15 boys' quad won the C final to end 13th, while the J14 boys' quad were 16th and the J16 boys' quad 17th.

In the prestigious senior boys’ coxless pair, Angus Robson and Sam Radvan served notice of their potential as they stormed to sixth place in the A final.

Head coach Ian Dryden hailed the impact of the regatta on the youngsters and admitted tasting medal success had made the experience even better.

He said: “It is the icing on the cake to come away with medals at national championships but we also cannot underestimate how valuable this event is as an experience and inspiration to our young rowers.

"They learned a great deal from the races and will take this forward to forthcoming regattas and to Henley Women’s Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta qualifying.

"Our thanks go to the boat club, the Canford ground staff and to Friends of Canford Rowing.”

More than 5,200 rowers from 153 clubs and schools took part in the National Schools' Regatta.