Stratton joins Olympic champion Scott for season opener

Olympic gold medallist Hannah Scott will be joined in the Great Britain quadruple sculls for this weekend’s first World Cup regatta in Seville by another Northern Ireland rower making her senior international debut.

Finnola Stratton, 22, is already a world champion at under-23 level and although she grew up on a farm near Bristol, her mother Cathy is from Cullybackey in County Antrim.

Scott and Stratton will be joined in the boat by Lola Anderson and Sarah McKay.

"My mum is from Cullybackey and I have quite a few relatives there, aunts and uncles and cousins and other relatives from Northern Ireland elsewhere in the world. A lot of supporters," explained Stratton.

"My dad is from the Bristol area which is where I grew up on a farm. Both my parents grew up on farms and both rode horses which was quite cool because they had similar sorts of upbringings."

Stratton took up the sport when she was 12 years old at Avon County Rowing Club, near to the family home.

She has two older siblings, a brother and sister, and a younger brother who were all very sporty.

Stratton's mum, Cathy (nee Herbison) was a champion three-day eventer for Ireland.

"I definitely was not the sportiest out of us four. We were all a year apart, and everyone else was kind of pretty sporty," continued Stratton.

"I was sort of in the corner with a book, but mum is very horsey and so she got us into all that stuff.

"I wasn't great at it. I'm a rower's build, so you don't see many horse riders above 5'10". Eventually I got into rowing and it was a much better fit for me.”

Stratton almost fell out of love with the sport during Covid-19 lockdown but her progress accelerated when she began her studies at Reading University in 2021.

Five years later, she has a bronze and gold medal tucked away from the world under-23 championships and is about to make her senior debut for Great Britain with the Olympics in Los Angeles just two years away.

"I think it's something that even when you're five years old, you're very aware of. I remember the London Olympics in 2012, and I must have been eight or nine.

"I never thought it would be a possibility for me ever, just because of I wasn't very sporty at all but it was something that I always really wanted, just in the way that kids dream, but it was never something I thought would actually be possible.

"And then under-23s came along, and then to come into the senior team, the only thing really we're all working towards here is the Olympics.

"That realisation hits you all at once. It's only since I've got here in the last six months that it might genuinely be a possibility and not just a dream.”

Stratton now finds herself alongside Scott in the Olympic gold medal boat from Paris.

"Yeah. I mean, it is crazy because I see some of the people that I'm now working with as celebrities. I think Hannah was a big one for me," explained Stratton.

"I sort of knew her journey and her pathway from Princeton and so I'd interacted with her to some extent before I joined the team. I mean, that was one of the most incredible races I've ever seen in my life, that quad final in Paris."

Scott has certainly been impressed with the newest addition to the quad that won a silver at last year‘s World Championships.

"She's got so much potential. She's oozing with it. I have immediately, really gravitated towards Finn," says Scott.

"She's just such a gem, just very cool, calm, chill, just very relaxed, just go with the flow, but also has that oomph in her and that's something that I relate to a lot and I gravitate towards.

"So you can definitely see the Northern Irish in her because I can see it every day.

"She's also so strong. She's a bit of a farm girl, so she's got that natural, just raw power and strength, which is really cool."

All roads this year lead to the Worlds in Amsterdam in August and Stratton is on a steep learning curve.

"I feel like I'm cramming about four years' worth of learning into about two weeks," she says.

"But I think it's going pretty well. The rest of the guys in the boat are really supportive.

"I'm really enjoying myself. And I think that's a sign of a pretty healthy boat is if you're having fun and definitely I’m having a lot of fun in it."