Winning rower, 100, returns to regatta 80 years on

A 100-year-old former rower who previously won the main event at the Henley Royal Regatta has returned 80 years on.

Tony Purssell won The Grand Challenge Cup when he and his crew defeated a Swiss team from Zurich in 1946.

But when he and his fellow athletes - mainly made up of students - won the crown and title by three quarters of a length, they were still fresh from the war.

He said: "Henley's changed so much since my time, because you've got to remember, we had food rationing and clothes rationing and all sorts of things."

"One of our crew had been a prisoner of war since Dunkirk, which was remarkable," he added.

"Four of us were from Oxford University - there were four others of us who were heavier."

Afterwards he received the cup from the then Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II.

"We had to queue up for that, so I remembered it," he said. "But I was very naive. I suppose I was 20, wasn't I?"

Purssell went on to represent Great Britain at the 1948 Olympics in the coxed four.

But he described Henley Royal Regatta, which was founded in 1839, as "always something special".

"People come here, you see your friends, and now, I'm not rowing. But the rowing makes all of this possible."

The annual event in Henley-on-Thames, which is featuring more than 400 races, began on Tuesday and ends on Sunday.

This year the regatta has seen a record-breaking 862 entries from 21 nations.

The latest Grand Challenge Cup was contested between the British and Italian national men's eights, with the home team emerging triumphant.