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Two rowers from Aberdeen are amongst five Scottish rowers selected to represent Great Britain at the 2013 World Rowing Under 23 Championships. Iona Riley and Lewis McCue are part of University Rowing Aberdeen, a unique partnership between the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University and supported by Scottish Rowing. Additionally, both rowers are supported by the sportscotland institute of sport which gives specialised support to aspiring athletes with ambitions to make the Olympic podium.

Louise Martin CBE, Chair of sportscotland, said: "Congratulations to all of our Scottish rowers on being selected to compete for GB at the Under 23 World Championships. After last summer's terrific Olympic gold medals for Heather Stanning and Katherine Grainger, it is wonderful to see talented Scottish rowers coming through the system and competing at the very highest level in their age category. I wish them every success in Austria."

Riley and McCue, both born and educated in Aberdeen and students of Applied Sports Science at Robert Gordon University (RGU), were selected after a long season of long-distance water assessments, ergo tests and seat racing.

Riley, 21, will race at four in the eight and McCue, 18, will stroke the coxed four at the Championships which will be held in Linz, Austria later this month.

Michael Hughes, Head of Performance Rowing in Aberdeen, said: "This is the perfect way for us to sign off a productive season. I was with them during their many trips south for testing and I saw how tough their competition has been this year so it's their dedication and commitment to this dream that has pushed them across the line ahead of others."

McCue is joined in the coxed four by former George Watson's College athlete, Callum McBrierty.  The 20-year-old Durham University student will sit behind his fellow Scot in the two seat of the GB boat coached by Angelo Savarino.

Fellow George Watson's alumni, Andrew Holmes, 21, who learned to row at Castle Semple Rowing Club but who now studies and rows at Harvard University in the USA, has been selected to stroke the GB men's coxless four.  The Scot, a world junior champion in the same boat in 2009, will be hoping to improve upon his record of three consecutive world U23 bronze medals.

Falkirk's Cameron Buchan, like Holmes, is fresh from Henley Royal Regatta where his Northeastern University crew were finalists in the Ladies' Challenge Plate for men's eights.  Buchan, 20, who last summer made his debut for the Scotland Rowing Team at the Home International Regatta in Cardiff, sits in the five seat of the GB men's eight coached by Cambridge University head coach and Olympic gold medallist Steve Trapmore.

Lee Boucher, Scottish Rowing's High Performance Co-Ordinator, said: "Once again our athletes have demonstrated outstanding levels of consistency to force their way into an extremely strong GB Rowing Team.  They will all now be firmly focussed on delivering the best possible performances to try and secure a place on the podium in Linz."

The athletes are now in a residential holding camp in Caversham and training at the home of GB Rowing in their crews. They fly out to Austria in less than two weeks, with racing starting on Wednesday 24 July with the finals on Sunday 29 July.