WARRINGTON Rowing Club member Olivia Hill has won a gold medal for Great Britain in the combined 2024 World Rowing Senior, Under 23 and Under 19 Championships in Canada.

Hill, 20, was in the stroke seat helping the women’s eight cross the line ahead of second-placed USA and third-place Germany at under 23s level in St Catharines, Canada.

Alongside Harriet Drake-Lee, Julia Hunt-Davis, Alice Baker, Amber Harwood, Abigail Dawson, Rhianna Sumpter, Ellie-Kate Hutchinson and cox, Hermione Hill, the GB eight led from the start and finished nearly two seconds clear of the defending champions.

Hill is now listed as an Oxford Brookes University competitor, but she started out with Warrington Rowing Club on the River Mersey as a junior and raced for them for five years.

Representing Great Britain on the world stage at under 23s level at the age of 20 in such a physically demanding sport is considered a big stepping stone for Hill.

But she is now part of a talented group of athletes looking to develop their championship racing with the aim of becoming Olympians of the future.

She hails from Padgate, attended St Oswalds Junior School, Kings Academy and Priestley College before spending a gap year at Leander Rowing Club in Henley ahead of taking up her place with Oxford Brooks University.

Hill’s last race for Warrington Rowing Club as a junior came in August, 2022, when she and Iffy Marinos won silver in the British Junior Rowing Championships under 18s women’s double final at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham.

In the same year she was in the club’s junior girls quad with Marinos, Izzy Bate and Ellie Kadir which competed in both Henley Women’s Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta.

Hill started at Oxford Brooke’s University in September, 2023, and she quickly established herself as a talented athlete within the Oxford Brookes set-up.

Oxford Brookes have a reputation for being a centre of excellence and many would say that they are the world’s leading rowing university.

During this past academic year, Hill won the British University Championship and topped that by winning at Henley Royal Regatta.

She was also very successful at the GB senior trials, which ultimately led to her selection for the under 23s Great Britain team.