Rowing star Matthew Tarrant never wants to be the reserve at an Olympic Games again – he only has eyes for gold at Tokyo 2020.

Make no mistake, the 27-year-old has learned a lot from being a spare at the games in Rio two years ago.

But the disappointment in being so close to representing his country on the greatest stage of all motivates Tarrant every single day.

“It’s such a tough role to play (being a spare in Rio) but it’s such an important role to play,” said the Oxford Brookes University Boat Club rower.

“For me, knowing how close I was to selection is the biggest thing that’s driving me now to make sure I’m doing enough so that I know I’m not on that knife-edge again.

“I feel a lot better in myself; a lot more confident and a lot fitter and in a much better position to achieve that goal that I want in Tokyo.”

As seasons go, 2018 got off to a fine start for Tarrant as part of the men’s eight that collected a silver medal in the opening World Rowing Cup, in Belgrade, this month.

Tarrant sees plenty of potential in this men’s eight unit and despite only forming at the start of the year, the double world champion believes they can go far.

He said: “The squad as a whole is really strong but in the big boat, you have to get eight different rowing styles to gel and move in unison.

“For me, that’s one of the toughest parts of rowing.

"It’s a rare occurrence that you get a crew that can pick up on each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

“Once you’ve found those, you can work to bring out the weaknesses and enhance those strengths.”

Tarrant was part of the men’s eight that stood top of the podium at the 2014 World Championships and four years on, the rower is desperate to get that golden feeling once more.

“A lot of athletes will tell you they lose the drive for winning,” he said.

“Jürgen Gröbler (GB rowing coach) always tells us that the loser always trains harder and when I won my first World Championships gold, that was definitely at the forefront of my mind.

“I didn’t want to become one of those athletes who thought they’d done everything. You’ve always got to keep pushing and I’m hungrier than ever now.

“From being a spare at the Rio Games, I’m doing everything I can year on year to make sure I’m in a position to bring home more medals.”

Tarrant was speaking at the launch of the GB Rowing Team’s new competition kit in association with SAS, the Official Analytics Partner of British Rowing.

A market leader in analytics, SAS has been helping British rowers get the best out of their performances by using data from training and racing since 2014.

Tarrant said: “A large part of our training programme is driven by data. It helps us develop our performance throughout the year.

“Going into a race blind, in terms of not having those stats and what you’ve done previously means, you could go out too hard or not go out quick enough so having that data behind you gives you a great starting point in order to get results.”

SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®.