WARRINGTON’S Lucy Glover will return home from the 2023 World Rowing Championships disappointed.

Having not been picked in the women’s quad in Belgrade, Serbia, British Rowing chiefs selected Warrington Rowing Club’s Tokyo Olympian in the single sculls – an unfamiliar event to her at international competition level.

The 24-year-old, whose campaign has been impacted by illness, ended up with a punishing schedule of five races in eight days before finishing the event in 22nd place overall.

She finished fourth in her heat last Sunday, second in the repechage the following day to reach Wednesday’s quarter-finals where she finished sixth.

That put her into Thursday’s C/D semi-finals where she was sixth, leaving her to conclude with contesting yesterday’s D final.

Glover, who also competes for Edinburgh University, won bronze with her crew in the women’s quadruple sculls in the world championships staged at Labe Arena in Račice, Czech Republic, last year.

They won gold without her in Serbia on Saturday, too.

The key for Glover now will be a strong winter of training, with the aim of winning her place back in the quad for the Paris Olympics.

It is a boat Glover appeared settled in, and the one in which she represented Team GB in the Tokyo Olympics, as she won gold in last year’s European Championships and sealed bronze in the 2023 European Championships at Bled in Slovenia.

But this year she has been shuffled about.

For World Cup II in Varese, Italy, in June, Glover was called on to compete in the women’s double sculls with Saskia Budgett from Tideway Scullers School, finishing 10th overall.

Glover was then chosen for the women’s single sculls in World Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland, in July but a late withdrawal resulted in Glover switching back to the quad, going on to win the silver as GB topped the medal count and won the series overall.

Glover started rowing, 12 years old, at Warrington Rowing Club and won a silver medal at the World Rowing Junior Championships in the quad (JW4x) in 2016.

Moving up to U23 level, she won gold, bronze and then gold again in the women’s quad from 2017-2019.

She made her senior debut at the European Rowing Championships in 2021, where she won a silver medal in the quad (W4x).

The crew then raced at the Tokyo Olympic regatta, where they finished seventh.

In 2022 her W4x finished fourth at World Cup I but she doubled up in double sculls, with Glover winning bronze with Jess Leyden.

The quad then took the silver medal at World Cup III, bronze in the World Championships and capped the year with the European gold.