TWO Wye rowers stormed to double gold at the 3,000-competitor World Masters Championships in Belgium.

Monmouth Rowing Club’s Mark Stewart-Woods won his eight-boat D (over 50) singles race by two lengths from his nearest German rival in 3 minutes 44 seconds to take world gold.

And, teaming up with Italian, German and Swiss crew mates, the 51-year-old also took his mixed D quad sculls race by one length from another international composite, with American, Brazilian, Danish and German crews also in the field.

Old Monmothian Alex Butler in City of Bristol colours also won his men’s C (over 42) quad’s race by just six feet from a German boat, and added a second gold in B (over 36) coxed fours, winning by one length from a Norwegian crew in the fastest time of the 10-boat event. 

But he was just pipped by 0.44secs by a Dutch crew in his B coxless fours race. 

Racing at the World Masters is organised into eight-boat heats, against – as closely as possible – crews of the same aggregate age, with the winner awarded gold.

But everyone has one eye on the times to see who is the true world champion in the class, and no one could beat Stewart-Woods on the clock in his single or quad, including his regular GB Olympian and Cambridge Boat Race Blue singles rival Guy Pooley.

The Monmouth man was the fastest sculler overall in a 150-boat field in his singles class, before helping set the best quads time out of 28 boats.  

He took the initiative off the blocks in his 1,000m singles race in Hazewinkel, to go through half-way a good one-and-a-half lengths up.

Out of 18 heats in the event, he came home a full two seconds clear of his nearest rival on time, with his own field, including Chilean, Chinese, Norwegian and Brazilian scullers, trailing in his wake.   

In the quads, it was tighter as his crew had just half a length at half-way from an American, Swedish and Polish boat before winning by 2.09 seconds.

In the younger class C singles, Stewart-Woods came from third at halfway in his eight-boat heat to grab second three lengths behind giant German Olaf Klein, placing ninth out of 128 on time.

He was also third with Upper Thames partner Clive Cooper in their E pairs race (over 55) behind Dynamo Moscow and Czech boats, placing seventh on time out of 24.

The Monmouth Rowing Club B coxed four of Stewart-Woods, Lenny Colling, Steve Randell and Simon Lee went close in their eight-boat race, leading through half-way only to be caught in the latter stages by a Berlin boat of ex-German internationals, finally losing out by one length, with Norwegian, Italian and British opposition well beaten.

The quartet from the Monmouthshire Building Society-sponsored club would have won two of the other four heats in their 22-boat event, as they placed third overall on time.

In C coxless fours, an Austrian boat just pipped them to second by 0.3 seconds with a German crew one-and-a-half lengths up in gold, as the Wye crew placed seventh on time out of 30 starters.

In the D coxed fours, Stewart-Woods, Lee, Colling and Cooper were third two lengths behind the German winners and one length behind a South American crew, pacing seventh out of 33 on the clock. 

Colling and Randell were third in their eight-boat A pairs race (over 27) two lengths behind the Danish winners, and ahead of Croatian, German, Dutch and Swedish duos.

The duo, Lee and Stewart-Woods also teamed up with Poole and Upper Thames rowers to race a D eight, beating Italian, Brazilian and French boats as a German boat took victory three lengths in front.