ROWING: While the spotlight might be on golden girl Kim Brennan, Australian rower Kerry Hore is about to make her own Olympic history in Rio.
Brennan (nee Crow) is the reigning world champion in the women's single scull and raging favourite to win gold in August in Rio.
But Hore is set to become the first Australian female rower to compete in four Olympics when she lines up in the women's quad scull.
The 34-year-old still has to be rubber-stamped as part of the Australian team but some impressive results this year mean she's a certainty to compete for another Olympic medal after winning bronze in Athens in 2004.
Hore, a pharmacist from Tasmania, is in Sydney competing in the final selection trials for the 2016 World Cup regattas.
"I've tried not to think about it too much leading into these selection trials because it's a fairly extensive process and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself," Hore said.
"I didn't realise until recently I'm the first to compete in four but I kept going because I thought the group we had was capable of achieving a really good result rather than any record."
The quad scull crew of Hore, Jennifer Cleary, Jessica Hall and Maddie Edmunds is a strong medal chance despite some bad luck at last year's world championships in France.
During the final, they were blown across the course and became hooked on a buoy.
They still managed to finish fifth to qualify the boat for Rio and also drew confidence from beating world champions USA in their heat.
"The girls showed remarkable composure in that race to get back in the race and go past New Zealand to get that final qualifying spot," Hore said.
"The fact we were able to qualify the boat was a huge achievement and to get that win over the USA makes us realise we're competitive."
Hore said the standard of women's rowing in Australia was at an all-time high which she, in part, attributed to Brennan.
"Kim's great for us in that she always performs at a very high standard in everything she does.
"She's the world champion so she's a good person for us to have around to compare ourselves to because she's the yardstick in women's rowing and shows us what we need to aspire to."
The Rowing section of the 2016 Australian Olympic Team will be selected in June.
AAP (modified)
