Enniskillen’s Holly Nixon and her GB Women’s Quadruple Scull finished fourth at the 2016 World rowing Cup in Varese in Italy at the weekend following a promising first outing for the newly formed crew.
The crew of Kristina Stiller, Jess Leyden, Nixon and Rosamund Bradbury are ultimately looking to qualify the boat for the Rio Olympics and this was their first taste of competition together.
As such then it was a bit of a step into the unknown but they will have been delighted with the two competitive rows they enjoyed and with the proximity to which they finished during Sunday morning’s final.
On Saturday, the newly-formed GB combination finished a close-up third in the preliminary race before Sunday’s final.
In the final, the GB quad was in the chasing pack before finishing strongly. Poland went on to win the race in 6:36.34 with Holly and crew running out of time by just fractions of a second to attack Ukraine for third in the final 250m. Ukraine squeezed the bronze by just two-tenths from the British quartet whose primary aim in Varese was to seek race practice prior to the Olympic qualifying regatta next month.
Next up will be European Championships in Germany where they will hope to gain more experience before that Olympic showdown. 
Elsewhere, former team-mates and Portora Boat Club members Lloyd Seaman and Leonora Kennedy were in action for Ireland in Varese. 
Lloyd was in lightweight men’s four, finishing16th overall while Leonora took part in the women’s pair finishing 15th following a challenging weekend.