CHRIS Bartley returned to the familiar waters of Eton Dorney this week and bagged himself a bronze medal.

The 29-year-old from Farndon stroked the GB lightweight men’s four to a podium finish at the World Rowing Cup.

Bartley had won a silver at the same venue in last year’s London Olympics.

Bartley – racing this year in a new line-up which also included Adam Freeman-Pask, William Fletcher and Jonathan Clegg – helped the GB crew join Denmark and New Zealand at the front of the field going through 500m.

But the more experienced crews then started to pull away, with New Zealand inching ahead of Denmark, leaving Great Britain behind to take the bronze medal.

Former King’s School student Bartley said: “We train for hard, close races.

“We were a bit at the back today but there’s a lot more to come from this crew.”

In the women’s single scull, former Bishop Heber High School and Abbey Gate College student Victoria Thornley, 25, of Holt, settled well into the pace of her final before slipping back to finish fourth.