Enniskillen Royal Boat Club rower Acorn Cassidy has been selected to represent Great Britain in the U19 World Rowing Championships in Canada this month.

The championships, being held in St. Catharines in Canada, will take place from August 18 to 25 as part of the U19 and U23 categories.

Cassidy will take part in the Women’s Four (JW4-) for the U19 team alongside Emily Nicholas (Sir William Perkins’s School), Martha Shepherd (Hinksey Sculling School) and Natasha Philips (Wycliffe College).

Speaking on their selection, Cassidy said: “I was really excited. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into trials because I wouldn’t have much experience racing the girls in my category, but over time, I realised I was near the top of the rankings, so, I was really happy with the results.”

Team GB have been training hard in England ahead of the long trip to North America on Wednesday (August 14) this week. Cassidy added that a first-place finish is the aim for them and their teammates: “Yeah that’s the goal.

"We are training hard at the moment just perfecting everything to try and get as fit as possible to try and get a medal.

"I’ve done trials with them and I’ve raced with some of them at the Munich Regatta in May but other than that I wouldn’t have much experience with them.

"I’ve never been to Canada before. We are heading over on Wednesday, so we’ll have about five days to get used to the new time zone and make sure everything is perfected before the racing starts.”

Cassidy revealed that they have taken great inspiration from watching Fermanagh rowers Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney at this summer's Olympics in Paris.

“Yeah, it was really great to see them at the Olympics especially because they are so local to Enniskillen,” they said.

“We were training through the period, so we watched them live on the TV.”

Cassidy just concluded a successful season with ERBC as they picked up two wins at the Irish Rowing Championships in Cork in mid-July.

“That weekend was a lot of travelling for me because it coincided with crew trials for the World Championships so I was in England for a couple of days before the Irish Championships and then had to fly back to Dublin and travel down to Cork for the Saturday and Sunday,” they continued.

“I was really pleased with how the events went, and even though it was a lot of travelling, it was a good decision. I think we had a pretty good season.

"We went to the National Schools Regatta and our crews did really well there, after that, it was training hard leading into the Irish Championships.

"I think it was a really good highlight (in Cork) with the girls in both the four and the eight which last year we weren’t nearly as successful, so, it was great for everyone.”