CALLUM McBRIERTY knows only too well the highs and lows of elite sport. He experienced the two extremes in the space of just a few months in 2016 in what he describes as “an absolutely crazy year”.

The 24-year-old from Edinburgh was agonisingly close to selection for the British rowing team for the Rio Olympics but missed out on a place in the team at the very last, meaning he was forced to stay at home and watch his team-mates in the men’s eight power their way to the gold medal. “It was tough. One of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do in sport was watch the men’s eight Olympic final when they won,” he said. “Knowing that you were so close and knowing that you have to wait another four years for another chance at the Olympics – that was pretty difficult to take.”

In a strange twist though, just a few weeks after watching that Olympic final, McBrierty had one of the best moments of his career. The Scot, alongside Ollie Cook and Henry Fieldman, became world champion in the men’s coxed pair and that victory did, he admits, go some way to dampening the disappointment he felt at missing out on his maiden Olympic appearance. “It was such a whirlwind of emotions going from knowing I wasn’t going to the Olympics to becoming world champion,” he said. “I look back now and am incredibly proud and happy with how the 2016 season panned out, even if it didn’t pan out in the very best way possible. Overcoming that adversity and turning it round in such a quick period of time was great – I’m really happy with how I managed to do that.”

While McBrierty may find it difficult to look at his progress objectively, to outside observers, it is nothing less than remarkable. He only broke into the British squad in 2015 and so despite missing out on his dream of Olympic selection, his speed of development only served to increase his motivation and drive. He believed that he had the potential to become a mainstay of the British team but convincing GB’s head coach, the notoriously tough Jurgen Grobler, that he merited a regular place in one of the main boats was another matter entirely.

However, McBrierty saw the GB squad’s winter training as an opportunity to prove that he was indispensible and has now proven himself to be one of the strongest rowers in a squad that is over-flowing with world-class athletes. “I came back after the World Championships and the Olympic guys were still on their break so I was treated as one of the new guys which gave me a lot of motivation over the winter,” he explains. “I thought – I need to establish myself amongst this group and really push on and challenge the Olympic guys for seats. And so at the British trials earlier this year, I got the best results against Will Satch and Mo Sbihi, the Olympic champions, that I’d ever had against them by quite some margin. So I just need to make sure I keep that momentum going.”

Certainly, McBrierty shows no signs of his momentum faltering. He has begun the 2017 season in the men’s four, which is GB’s top boat and the quartet have started the year in sparkling form, winning gold at the season-opening World Cup regatta in Belgrade, Serbia earlier this month. Next up for the Scot is the European Championships which begin today, in Racice, Czech Republic and with GB traditionally dominating this event, there is a considerable amount of pressure on McBrierty and his three teammates and the Scot is in no doubt about the result he is aiming for. “Being in the top boat means that there’s always a lot of pressure,” he admits. “The GB 4 has a strong history of winning but I’m the sort of character who thrives on pressure. For as long as I’m in the four, the target will always be to win. Anything that isn’t a win, we will be very disappointed and have to seriously address what happened. So going into the Europeans, it’s definitely a case of targeting the win and we’ll be disappointed with anything less than that.”

This year is just the start of a four-year cycle leading up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and McBrierty is keen to make sure there is no repeat of the disappointment that he suffered last year in missing out on the Rio Games. “After winning the World Championships in 2016, this year, my aim was always to move it up and become World Champion in an Olympic class boat,” he said. “Everything is a stepping-stone to 2020 and I see this year as a year to establish myself as one of the leading athletes in the squad as we head towards Tokyo. It’s very tough in Britain because you know that if you were in any other country, there’s a very good chance that you’d be in one of their boats and that you’d probably be picking up an Olympic medal. In Britain, it’s just so difficult to get into the boats to get your chance to win Olympic medals- but I know that pays dividends in the long-term.”

The finals of the European Championships will be live on the BBC Red Button on Sunday from 9:45am with a highlights show on BBC 2 at 3:30pm.