WORLD under 23 rowing medallist Colin Scott is paddling in Poland this weekend at the first European Championships for 40 years.

The former Royal Grammar School Worcester pupil has been called up to the GB senior team to race in Poznan and goes in the GB eight against the likes of world championship finalists Poland and Russia.

"We've been together since I won a bronze in the four at the world under 23s in Glasgow and the crew has really picked up speed in the last few days," said the Malvern oarsman, before putting in one last work-out at the town's Banana Fitness centre.

"The crew has got a lot faster in the last few days at the GB squad's training centre near Reading. We've been training two to three times a day and it's a real boost when you can feel the boat picking up speed coming into a big event. We're quite excited about how we're going."

Cambridge University student Scott hasn't had a break from training and racing for the last 12 months and will only get a few days off when he is back from the Europeans.

The 22-year-old has raced three times for the Light Blues reserves against Oxford and will be bidding for a place in the Boat Race crew when he returns to study next month.

"It's been a long, hard season," he said. "I did all the Cambridge training from last September, helped Goldie beat Isis in the Blue Boat reserves race, then went to the under 23s and now the Europeans.

"But it's been worth it. It's the first time they've held the championships in years, because it was superseded by the world championships.

"But the east European nations wanted to restart it and it's great to be involved in the first new one.

"We're largely a development crew with several under 23 internationals on board, but we're looking forward to the challenge of taking on two of the crews that qualified for the Olympics by making the world finals in Munich earlier this month."

The final is on Sunday and Scott will also face the likes of World Cup medallists Belarus, Romania and Ukraine.