DEAL rower Ben Smissen has taken another big step towards fulfilling his Olympic dream by being chosen to row for Great Britain Juniors next month.

After completing a gruelling four days of assessments at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham, 16-year-old Ben was selected for the coxless four despite being the youngest rower at the trials.

The crew will now spend time training together to prepare for the Junior International Regatta at Munich on May 8.

On the first day at Nottingham all the rowers took part in a pairs trial. Ben, rowing with Robin Esjmond-Frey of St Pauls School London, won the race by over a length.

He continued to impress during the assessments and at the end of the four days was told he had been selected for the A squad, which then transferred to Eton for further training.

There, Smissen knocked more than five seconds off his personal best for 2km to break the British J16 record with a time of six mins 13.3 seconds, which left him top of the Southern Region rankings for 18-year-olds and under.

Deal Rowing Club captain James Morgan said: “Everyone at the club is absolutely delighted with the news.

“Ben has worked so hard for this, and as long as he maintains his progress it looks as though he will be going to the Junior World Championships in July.”

Morgan added: “We had hoped that Ben would make the B squad this year and then get into the A squad this year, and for him to have made the A squad already is just fantastic.”