YORK City Rowing Club youngster Adam Janes narrowly missed out on a top-three finish at the World Junior Championships at Eton Dorney.

Janes teamed up with Vassilis Ragoussis, William Kenworthy and Callum Jones to row for Great Britain in the ‘B’ final of the fours on the London 2012 Olympic course.

Greece took the victory in six minutes 12.79 seconds, with Canada second in 6-15.3 and Poland third in 6-18.22.

The GB crew clocked 6-18.41 ahead of Denmark and the USA.

It was a dream come true for St Peter’s School rower Janes, who last year was selected for the England eight which beat Ireland, Scotland and Wales to win gold in the Home International Regatta.

This year, he has raced in the St Peter’s senior boys’ four, twice national champions, in both the Schools’ Head of the River Race and the National Schools’ Regatta.

Janes, who is the 12th St Peter’s rower to represent Great Britain in the last ten years, trains ten times a week on land and on the river.

The crew, who only a week before the championships had been competing against one another in different crews at Henley Royal Regatta, went through an intensive three-week training camp to allow them to blend together.

Jamie MacLeod, St Peter’s director of rowing, said: “In the first heat, Adam’s crew was up against the highly competitive rowing nations of Belarus, Croatia, Bulgaria and Denmark.

“They had a good start but could not quite maintain their position and came third overall. This meant they had to race for a semi-final place the next day.

“In a more determined and consistent race, they beat off challenges from Poland, Australia, Bulgaria and South Africa to get a place in the semi-final, the top 12 crews in the world.

“Semi-finals are always very tough at world level as only the top three crews will make the ‘A’ final (top six) and crews use unpredictable tactics. Some fly off the start to try to build a big lead only to fade later, others take it steadier then put in a massive burst toward the end of the race.

“In a very fast and tense semi-final, Great Britain were second or third for most of the race until Belarus put in a devastating burst in the last 400 metres, which gained five seconds on every crew. Unfortunately, they sneaked home just ahead of the Great Britain four.

“However, they had still made the top 12 and raced next day for a final position. Always a very close race, they came fourth in this by only a few feet to Greece, Canada and Poland. Germany, one of the world’s strongest rowing nations, went on the win this event.

“It was an outstanding achievement for Adam, which followed ten months of very hard graft.”