OARSOME York-based rower Kristina Stiller's goal of representing Great Britain at the World Junior Rowing Championships has finally been achieved.

The St Peter's School student will compete in the double sculls alongside Nottingham rower Lauren Fisher after the pair proved their worth at the GB trials at Dorney Lake in Windsor.

As reported by the Evening Press, sixth-former Stiller was in line for a call-up after impressing at prestigious events this year.

Doubling with a partner from Gloucester, she had shown promise at the Munich Junior International Regatta in May when they finished a creditable sixth, but selection for the GB team required a step up in speed.

Some progress had been made by the end of May when Stiller won the National Schools' Regatta, just pipping Fisher, with both beating the course record by seconds and the rest of the pack by two lengths.

This still might not have been sufficiently convincing for the selectors, but the duo made their point at the GB trials when, in single sculls, racing in unpleasant water, they more then doubled their lead over the other contenders.

Their ordeal was not quite complete as they had to then prove they could race a double scull but they fared excellently against the established women's coxless four and pair to finally secure their place at the World Junior Championships, to be held in Banyoles, Spain, at the end of July.

Stiller, and Fisher are both fairly new to sculling, having started only last September.

For the next four weeks they will follow the same training schedule as the Olympic squad, firstly on the River Dee at Chester then on the racing lake at Dorney and finally at Banyoles.

Their coach, Bobby Gibson, Fisher's worldclass start coach, is confident of further improvement given that four extra weeks represents a significant increase on their limited experience to date.

The two girls are very different in height; whereas Stiller is fairly tall at 5ft 10in, Fisher is very tall at 6ft 3in, and Gibson's first task will be to harmonise their styles.

The omens are good, however, as the last British women's double to win a medal at the Junior Worlds were current Olympians Debbie Flood and Frances Haughton in 1998, and their height difference was even greater.

Updated: 10:52 Friday, July 09, 2004