In a brave step with the ultimate aim of creating an Olympic crew, scullers Heather Boyle and Fiola Foley have joined SinΘad Jennings and her coach Hamish Burrell in Scotland.

Jennings won gold at the World Championships in Lucerne last month in the lightweight single scull, and quickly expressed a wish to be part of a strategy outlined by team manager Mick O'Callaghan to create a lightweight double scull, which will be one of the classes at the Athens games.

Foley, from Killorglin, has the experience of college in the United States behind her, while Boyle has taken leave from her job in the Bank of Ireland in Dublin to take up the challenge. The Commercial oarswoman, relatively new to top-class sculling, won the single sculls title at the national championships in Cork this year.

Burrell, a quiet-spoken Scot, is part of the St Andrews club in Edinburgh and has worked with the British team.

He has had phenomenal success with Jennings, who works as a pharmacist in Edinburgh, from her entry into the sport only two years ago to her remarkable rise to the very top last month.