Imogen Grant excited to be selected for Team GB rowing squad for the Tokyo Olympics

Imogen Grant has described the feeling of being named in the Team GB rowing squad for the Tokyo Olympics as “amazing”.

The 25-year-old was selected in the lightweight women’s double sculls with Emily Craig for the Games, which have been delayed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Grant, who is a former Stephen Perse Foundation and Hills Road Sixth Form College student, had taken a sabbatical from her medical studies to trial with the GB squad for the Olympics.

It had been reaping its rewards with some promising displays, first in the single sculls and then in the double with Craig.

“It’s amazing. When you’re training day in, day out, it feels kind of mundane but on a day like this when the team announcement happens, it reminds you that it’s not something that everyone gets to experience and I’m really excited to be selected,” says the Cambridge University Boat Club member.

“We had our final trials last March and it was the last day of our trials when it was announced that the world was going into lockdown, and a week after that was when it was announced the Olympics were postponed.

“It definitely feels like a long-time coming but I think Emily and I are definitely stronger, fitter and better as a crew than we were this time last year.

“Something really good has come out of the extra year’s training.”

Having had to take an extra year off from her studies, it makes you wonder whether the delay fuels added determination for Olympic success.

Grant and Craig have already won a silver medal at the European Rowing Championships this season and took gold in the second Rowing World Cup of the season in Lucerne, Switzerland.

“Emily and I are both very competitive people so the goal stays the same,” adds Grant, “but given that we’ve had another year of rowing and training together we can go into it approaching it with more confidence than we would have had this time last year.”