Sean Dickinson, of Blackpool Road, Ansdell, has once again successfully combined the two sports in the same weekend.

The 17-year-old captained the King Edward and Queen Mary School first XV in a victory over Ormskirk, then travelled to Manchester's Sports City Stadium for the 'Concept 2' English National Open Championships.

He added the English gold medal to his recent gold medal at the Welsh, and silver medal at the French Open Championships.

Competing in the Junior 18 category he faced an impressive field of junior rowers from all over Great Britain but stormed to an impressive victory, covering 2,000 metres in 6 minutes 25.9 seconds.

This was despite bearing the stud marks and carrying some bruises, aches and pains from a hard fought rugby game less than 24 hours earlier.

Sean said: "After so narrowly missing out on the gold medal in Paris, I was absolutely determined to win and become English Champion.

"Complete rest is the ideal preparation the day before such a significant race, but it was our last home game of the season and of my time at KEQMS, so I would not have missed it for the world."

Wayne Howard, his coach and stepfather, said: "Sean continues to train hard, regularly starting his school day with a strong 6,000 metres training row before his breakfast and then climbs back on the rowing machine when he gets home from rugby training.

"Sean was clearly jaded on Sunday but he rowed himself to a standstill and collapsed off his machine at the end."

The Scottish Championships are in two weeks time and Sean expects a good individual result.

The last of the indoor rowing season's home championships will be extra special because he has convinced three school rugby colleagues, Robert Whittam, James Chesters and Charles Blagbrough, to join him in Edinburgh to enter as a school team in the Junior sprint relay event.