Enniskillen’s Holly Nixon added to her medal haul on Sunday as she secured a bronze medal at the European Rowing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic as part of the GB Women’s Quadruple Sculls team.

Holly, along with Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, Jess Leyden and Beth Bryan produced a storming finish that saw them power through the field to finish third, just missing out on second spot which was claimed by Holland with Germany securing the victory.

“There is no such thing as an easy race and we definitely left ourselves a lot of work to do in the second half of the race but I was really pleased with the way that the girls pushed to the finish line.

“We were fourth or fifth for the first half of the race but we really dug in to get ourselves through the field and in the end we weren’t that far off the silver medal and a lot of people were saying to us that if there had of been another 50 metres we might have pipped the Dutch,” said Holly.

The Quad had lagged in behind Holland and Poland recently in Serbia and Holly admits that the target for the GB crew was to cut the gap between them and that duo and in that respect they more than achieved their goals.

“We weren’t that happy with how we did in Serbia. The Polish and the Dutch had beaten us by a fair bit so the goal of the regatta for us was to actually halve that distance but by the end we had exceeded those expectations. We were less than a second behind the Dutch and actually beat the Poles.

“We were quite surprised at the end, I assumed that we were in fourth as I didn’t realise that Poland, who were medallists in Rio, were behind us so it was a bit of a shock. It was really good to get the performance in terms of rowing a lot better and then the medal was a little bonus on top of that,” she added.

The season is now starting to heat up as it builds towards the World Championships in Sarasota, Florida at the end of September. The Fermanagh woman has now faced the best in Europe this season and she expects the other leading contenders to show their hands in the coming weeks and that will give an indication of what lies ahead moving towards the Worlds.

“We still have quite a few nations to see and I’m sure that there will be a few more that will appear in Poland in a few weeks. The Chinese, New Zealand and the USA haven’t appeared yet so I think these next few events will give us a real glimpse of how this season is looking. Hopefully by July we will have raced nearly every country and that would be the ideal situation before the World Championships in Florida,” she explained.

The aim for now though is to secure that seat in Florida and Holly is hopeful that they can go on and seal their selection.

“We need to go to Poland next and produce a performance and probably also at Henley Royal as well to seal the deal,” said the former Portora Boat Club rower.

And with that in mind there was little time for celebrations with the Quad already back in training after last weekend’s bronze medal exploits.

“You have to keep building and improving. It was really great to enjoy the moment on Sunday but we are now back to training and you have to keep your head down and think of the next thing. You are never really safe in the team as there is always people coming up behind you and pushing you. It keeps you on your toes and keeps driving you on,” she said.

The Quad is a relatively new crew but Holly says that they are determined to keep pushing on with the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo the ultimate goal for them.

“They are a great group of girls. It is a very young crew and we don’t actually have that much experience between us but there is a real passion and a real energy. We are all really keen to try and make it to 2020. The girls are fearless racers which is good.”

If that is to be achieved though then consistent performances at the World Championships between now and then is a must accepts Holly.

“There is still three and a bit years left to the next Olympics so each World Championships is a stepping stone closer to that dream. We have to go now and perform at the World Championships consistently if we want to be up for selection in 2020. A lot of it is about experience and history so if I can build good history and experience behind me like winning medals or whatever at the World Championships over the next few years then it makes the decision easier for the selectors in 2020.”