Hannah Scott: Northern Ireland football and Ireland rugby teams inspired Coleraine rower to European silver

Scott in action in what was her international debut

Hannah Scott has said that the success over the weekend of fellow female athletes helped inspire her to European Championship silver medal success.

The Coleraine rower was part of the Great Britain boat that came second in the women's quadruple sculls in Italy on Sunday.

That followed the Northern Ireland football team winning the first leg of their Euro play-off, the Irish rugby team hammering Wales in the Six Nations and Co Tipperary-born Rachael Blackmore winning the Grand National.

"It is incredible," the 21-year-old told Sportsound Extra Time when asked if the weekend's earlier successes had inspired her in what was her senior international debut.

"And from my own town as well there is Katie Mullan, captain of the Irish women's hockey team. I have drafted a lot of inspiration from all these women, it is just like a march forward.

"There is a fight within all the women out there, they are quite feisty, independent and strong. It is all the good qualities that we are bringing forward and we are not ashamed of it.

"It is kind of nice for the women to be having their turn, and it is great to see all the women being successful within their sport. I'm very proud to be from here and I wouldn't change it for the world."

Scott (second from left) celebrates winning silver with her team-mates

Scott had an impressive regatta alongside sisters Mathilda and Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne and Lucy Glover, as they came within a few feet of becoming European champions.

The quartet were third at the halfway point but rowed confidently past Germany and came with 0.42 seconds of chasing down defending champions Netherlands.

Given how recently the crew was formed, Scott was delighted with her success, though disappointed to have come so close to gold and missed out.

"The weekend in general was quite a shock. We are a very new crew and had only been together three weeks," she explained.

"We are also quite young so it was very much a learning curve for us, but going in as such a fresh crew gave us so many opportunities to grow moving forward.

"To come away quite successful with our silver medal was great, we weren't expecting it but we weren't not expecting it at the same time.

"I had a lot of trust in the girls, I knew there was good potential for the boat but it was just really surprising to see it come off so early in our project for this crew. Three weeks is quite impressive."

Fellow Northern Ireland rowers Holly Nixon and Rebecca Shorten also won European medals on Sunday. Nixon and Saskia Budgett clinched bronze in the women's double sculls, while Shorten was part of Britain's bronze medal success in the women's four on the final day of the Varese event.

Hannah Scott's full interview can be heard here on this week's Sportsound Extra Time.