Two-time Olympic silver medallist Frances Houghton will be absent from this month’s World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam after failing to overcome a virus.
The 33-year-old had been in promising form this season, winning the Great Britain winter trials in December before finishing second in April’s senior trials.
A fifth-place finish in the women’s doubles scull at the 2014 European Rowing Championships in Belgrade followed at the start of June.
But GB Rowing reported Houghton, who won Olympic quadruple sculls silver in 2004 and 2008, has a virus and will not be ready to race in the double sculls alongside Victoria Thornley at the World Championships which run from August 24-31.
It means her hunt for a fifth World Championship gold following a quartet of wins in the quadruple scull will have to wait, with the illness bringing the curtain down on her year.
"This is a hugely disappointing end to what has been a very good year for me," Houghton told BBC Sport.
"Since joining the GB rowing team as a junior in 1995, this is the first time that I have missed a World Championships due to illness or injury, so it is a very strange feeling."
© Sportsbeat 2014