Katie Jackson and Lucy Richardson win bronze at World Under-19 Rowing Championships

The duo were nearly three seconds behind the Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) boat of Kira Kavalenka and Milana Darakhavets with just 500m of the 2000m course to go, but came home the stronger to finish .13 of a second ahead and claim the medal, just missing out on silver.

The pair had to battle elements all throughout the championships which were reduced to just three days of competition after days of storms battered the French capital.

But the Jamie McDonald-coached duo held their nerve to bring home a deserved medal, finishing behind Romania's Ionela Elena Scutaru and Gabriela Tivodariu, who were quick out of the start and were never headed.

The Romanians were more than a second ahead after the first 500m, winning in a time of 7 minutes 26.70 seconds. Jackson and Richardson finished the course in 7.31.16, just .26 of a second behind the favoured Greek team of Christina and Dimitra Papaioannou.

"We've had storms, we've had all of the conditions thrown at us. Just expect the unexpected and believe in yourself," Richardson said after the race.

It's been a meteoric rise for the duo, who last year teamed up with fellow Ballarat Clarendon College alumni Ellie McClure as part of the Australian eights crew which finished third in the B final at the world titles.

Jackson said the experience was amazing for the duo

"To be able to win both our heat and our semi was incredible, we were over the moon with those results and to top it off with a bronze medal was amazing," she said.

"From the semi-final to the final we had two hours exactly between the start of both races, which meant recovery was key in which the whole rowing Australia community was very helpful in doing so, from the coaches taking our boat as soon as we got off the water so we could go do an active recovery to the doctors and the physio helping with our nutrition and massaging, and most importantly our coach Jamie, who's been our biggest supporter all the way through, chatting to us to calm our nerves and focus in on the next race.

"The wind certainly picked up in the final with more of a side wind pushing us over. It was a very stressful race coming into the last kilometre then into the 500m, I told Lucy we have to go now or it will be fourth for us.

"I'm sure we gave our supporters a mini heart attack in doing so but it made our race very exciting in the closing strokes."

Coach Jamie McDonald said the pair were determined to be both physically and mentally ready for the challenge.

"While we had a race plan in place for the world championships, we also knew that at some point we may just have to go before we really should to stay with the field and fight our way to the front," he said.

"At the international level we knew that each race gets tougher and tougher. The girls had good wins in their heat and semi-final, but we knew to get a medal in this international field would take close to a perfect row.

"Katie and Lucy pushed very hard in the earlier part of the race to try and challenge Romania and France. This shut out France, but Romania didn't break. The mid-part of the race was about staying in contact and working very hard on our boat speed to be in a position to challenge the field.

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"With 250 to go you can see a big shift in their boat speed. This wasn't a race plan move, but the point where they decided that they were not going to settle for not making the podium.

"As their coach, I could see they were generating more speed in the last 150 metres than the other crews around them and that their technique was still incredibly connected.

"It was nerve wracking, but their determination and ability to get back to the leading boats stood out to myself and everyone in the grandstands order the final minute of the race."

The pair plan to stay together, but will focus on completing year 12 this year before trialing for the Australian under-21 and under-23 teams in years to come.

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