Eddie backing rower Bennett to make her mark on youthful crew

That's according to former teammate Jess Eddie, who won Olympic silver in the women's eight along with Bennett at Rio 2016.

Edinburgh's Bennett – the only member left of that eight from Rio – led a new-look side in the recent World Rowing Cup opener in Belgrade, helping them to silver.

Bennett, 29, won silver at the 2015 World Championships as part of the coxless four boat, while she also has 2016 European eights gold and 2017 coxless pair bronze in her cabinet.

And Eddie believes the Scot has the tools in her locker to rise up and lead the women's eight to continued success.

"Karen is trying to lead those girls on now, on the back of not being that experienced," said Eddie, speaking during RBC Ride for the Kids, a bike ride from London to Bruges, which took place last Friday and Saturday and was organised by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

"She was quite late into our crew in 2016 but she's pretty outstanding in herself. She went under intense pressure, did seat racing and beat Katherine Grainger in a race to get into our boat.

"She is a pretty exceptional athlete in her own right and has to now step up. When I first started, there was a lot of experienced world champions around me when I joined the team for Beijing.

"The team will be looking to her to show that leadership. But she's got a good network around her which I think will help her out and she'll step up to that.

"She's got the experience of winning an Olympic medal and you can't make that up. You can't click your fingers and have one.

"She's lived it and done it and she's got a lot of tools in her toolkit."

RBC has a partnership with SportsAid, and £60,000 was raised from the 183-mile ride to help the athletes of tomorrow. The charity helped Eddie back in the early stages of the Durham racer's career.

"SportsAid were incredibly kind to me and supportive of me and helped me on my journey to the Olympics," she added. "To be a part of the ride to Bruges is really special.

"It gets lots of people involved in sport and it's great to be a part of this big journey.

"It was a bit nervous at the start but it's amazing. As a rower, we spend a lot of time sitting down, so cycling is part of it sometimes."

Sportsbeat 2018