There was more medal joy for Enniskillen’s Holly Nixon as she secured a bronze medal at the World Rowing Championships in Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida as part of the GB Women’s Quad Sculls crew.
Having powered their way into the final by taking second spot in their heat behind Poland, it was then on to Sunday’s final.
A tight contest saw the Netherlands and Poland pull clear and in the battle for the bronze GB withstood the stern challenge of Germany to clinch third place in a time of 6 mins 19.330 secs.
A delighted Holly stated that this medal shows that her and crew members Beth Bryan, Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Jess Leyden are making strides in the right direction.
“This medal means a lot,” she said. “It’s my first senior medal in an Olympic class boat meaning it resembles that I am progressing as an athlete every year. It will only get tougher from here but for now it’s important to enjoy it.”
With it being a tight race, Holly says she only knew they were in the bronze medal position with 500m to go.
“ I think the final was a strong, exciting race and for us it was about taking it one stroke at a time.
I didn’t know where we were until Beth our bow girl said we are in 3rd at the 500 to go. So I just kept my head down and went for it,” she added.
Holly, who also won bronze at this year’s European Championships will now take a well deserved holiday but it won’t be long before she is back in the boat with the bigger picture being the Olympic Games in 2020 in Tokyo.
“The plan right now is to have a nice holiday as it has been a very long season. 
“As for the rowing, well, it’s a four year project and we need to keep building on what we have. So it’ll be back to working hard from the end of October and taking everything one step at a time,” she commented.