YORK City Rowing Club can boast their own golden girls.

Senior scullers Jill Salvin and Loretta Williams won the women's double sculls at the World Masters Rowing Championships held in Vichy, France.

The event hosted more than 3,000 competitors from around the world and the York duo, who are unbeaten in Britain this season, proved unbeatable once again, winning by five seconds.

Salvin has been training away from York but now the pair hope to enter their winning combination in the coming season's races.

Williams said: "It is such a rewarding end to a season of hard work and misfortunes, I'm so pleased we could perform our best technical race against such stiff opposition."

Salvin added: "We are still undefeated even on the world stage - that's got to be something to be proud of".

The victory was particularly poignant for her after near defeats in semi-finals and finals at Women's Henley and National Championships respectively when she represented Notts County Rowing Association.

The York girls' doubles' win also came on the back of a gold medal-winning success for Williams, who coxed the GB Adaptive Four at the World Championships in Milan.

The next race for Willians and Salvin will be the long distance sculls in Chester, before which Williams will be taking part in the Boston Marathon on September 21 with rowers with visual impairments to raise money for Disability Sport.

Updated: 11:40 Thursday, September 18, 2003