KAREN BENNETT has had quite a few days. At the weekend, the Olympic silver medallist won the all-important British rowing trials and then yesterday, she was named as an ambassador for Glasgow 2018, at which rowing is one of the six sports Scotland will host.
29-year-old Bennett has been based at GB’s training base in the south of England for almost a decade and with a distinct lack of opportunities to race at major championships in her home country, she cannot wait for Glasgow 2018, which kicks-off in August. “It will be great having this event in Scotland,” she said.
“And to be an ambassador is just incredible - I’ve loved sport all my life so to be involved like this is brilliant. It’s really good for the sport to be a part of Glasgow 2018 because I think it will do so much to lift the profile of rowing. It would be great to win a medal in Scotland - especially in front of the home crowd - and I think that will give me an extra push.”
Bennett has really made her mark on the international scene in the past few years. In 2016, she was part of the women’s eight that finished in second place at the Rio Olympics as well as becoming European champion and last year, she added a European bronze in the pair to her collection.
Bennett’s trials victory in the pairs at the weekend, alongside Rebecca Shorten, illustrates the excellent shape she is in but she admits that with so much riding on it - which boats the rowers end up in are partially decided from the trials - the event is an anxious few days.
“The trials are stressful - you have to be on your top form because they’re so important,” she said. And the other part is that you’re racing against your teammates and that can be quite difficult at times but you just have to try not to get distracted by any of that.
“You have a preference in your head as to what boat you’d like to be in but you just have to trust the coaches judgement.”
With a number of Scots, including Bennett’s fellow Olympians Stewart Innes and Alan Sinclair, likely to be a part of the GB team for this summer’s European Championships the Scottish representation in Glasgow is likely to be healthy, which Bennet is delighted to see.
"It’s great that there’s quite a few Scots doing well in the GB team - it’s nice to have a little Scottish group and we always have Scottish things that we say to each other," she laughed.
"It makes it feel like you’re in a home from home and we all get on really well so it’s good to have that."
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