WHEN Karen Bennett took part in the talent identification programme “Sporting Giants”, rowing was not the first sport she had in mind. In fact, when asked to try it out in her late teens, it was far from love at first go. She certainly wouldn’t have believed she would go on to become one of the most established members of the highly-successful GB team.

“I didn’t specifically think I’d do rowing at first,” she said. “Beach volleyball was what I wanted to do. When I was asked to try rowing I was thinking, ‘what, why?’

“I hated it at the start but I kept going because the people doing it at the same time were really lovely people and I enjoyed their company, the rowing was like an interruption to our chatting.

“It went from there, I slowly started getting better after not being very good at the start. I kept at it and I started winning some local competitions and then decided to move down south to take it seriously.”

After her initial sticky start, Bennett’s progress was impressive and she made her Olympic debut two years ago in the women’s eight that went on to win silver. The Edinburgh native is no stranger to international success having also picked up a World silver, as well as gold and bronze at European Championships.

It may have taken her until her late 20s but now she has the opportunity to compete in a major championship in her home country when in less than three weeks, Glasgow 2018 kicks off and with rowing one of the six sports Scotland is hosting. Standing on the podium on home soil would be something special.

“I’m really excited about the Europeans,” she said. “We’ve had the Commonwealth Rowing Championships in Scotland before, although it wasn’t part of the Commonwealth Games. But these European Championships will be really big and I’m looking forward to competing in front of the home crowd.

“I started rowing at Strathclyde Park, where Glasgow 2018 will be held, so to be going back there will be really nice. It’ll remind me where I came from and how far I’ve come on.”

Bennett’s season is already in full swing and the 29-year-old has two World Cup events under her belt with a second-place finish in the fours in the most recent one in Austria, her best result of the year.

The team have yet to be officially named but it seems likely that Bennett, who is an ambassador for the Games, will be in the women’s four, which has looked impressive this season. And she believes the boat is coming into form at just the right time.

“We’ve had other races this year. There’s been World Cups and other things and you just focus on the event that’s coming up,” she said. “They’ve all gone now though and the next one is the European Championships. The first race of the season is always nerve-wracking so it’s good that’s over and done with and I’m feeling good heading towards Glasgow.”

The level of the British rowing team though means every person in the set-up is aiming for Olympic gold, and with Tokyo only two years away, Bennett is no different. And while the competitiveness in the squad makes it a tough environment, it does push the Scot to improve day in, day out.

“Everything I went through to get to the Olympics in Rio was probably harder than actually being there, where all you have to do is go out there and execute a race you’ve spent years preparing for,” she said.

“Tokyo is always in the back of my mind. But I need to replicate what I did in 2016 which is not get too far ahead, just focus on the next race, the next test.

“Tokyo isn’t far away now and we know next year we need to qualify the boat. These European Championships are a massive thing for us in terms of putting those building blocks in place.”