AS he prepares for this summer’s world junior rowing championships, rower Ben Smissen has received valuable words of encouragement from Olympic hero James Cracknell.

The double Olympic champion was at Deal Rowing Club to help launch The Marina club’s new partnership with the charity Access Sport, which encourages youngsters to take part in sport.

Cracknell took the opportunity to emphasise the scale of Smissen’s achievements thus far.

He said: "It’s very unusual for a coastal rower to be as good at river rowing as Ben is because they are two very different techniques. You have got to get used to rowing in rough conditions to be a coastal rower, and I’m sure that when Ben switches to river rowing he hardly ever moans about the conditions.

"He is an incredibly talented athlete and very big for a 17-year-old, but I think Ben’s biggest achievement is that he has done it on his own. A lot of people get motivated by the people they row and train with, but he is very much on his own down here and motivating yourself to train hard in that situation isn’t easy."

Smissen, from Deal, will again be competing for Britain in this year’s world junior championships at Brandenburg, in Germany, in August, and Cracknell, himself a former world junior gold medallist, added: "It’s important for Ben to do well in this year’s championships because it’s his last chance in the under-18s and, if you look back through the record books, our top rowers have all won world junior titles and Ben wants to be one of them."