FORMER Grange School Rowing Club captain Emily Ford has been selected to represent Great Britain at next week’s World Championships for under 23s in Bulgaria.

The Newcastle University student will compete in the women’s coxless four along with Sam Courty (Bath) and Cambridge University duo Holly Hill and Melissa Wilson.

Together they were victors in their boat class at Henley Women’s Regatta last month.

Ford, now 20, narrowly missed out on making the squad for last summer’s edition.

However she attracted the attention of national team selectors after finishing seventh in her age category during an assessment over 5km for British rowers in February.

Ford and Courty were then race-winners in a four during the International Huegel Regatta in Germany.

GB Rowing has since announced a 50-strong party for the event in Plovdiv, which starts next Wednesday.

A field of 820 rowers from 51 nations will take compete on what many consider to be the fastest course in the world.

Holmes Chapel-based Ford is no stranger to the global stage, finishing third in a the B final – ninth overall – in a double scull at the World Junior Championships in 2012 along with then St Nicholas RC High School pupil Annabel Rogers.

She followed that by winning two medals, one silver and the other bronze, in a women’s quad and eight respectively at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival the following January.