Great Britain’s women’s eight cannot afford to get lost in the enormity of the Olympic Games, according to their cox Zoe de Toledo.

Former University of Oxford cox de Toledo will head to Rio in a little over two months hoping to guide the British boat to gold, but knows they face a stern task overcoming last year’s World Championship medallists.

The GB team did win gold at May’s European Championships, and claimed silver from this weekend’s World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.

But de Toledo knows they cannot afford to get ahead of themselves with Rio 2016 looming large on the horizon.

“The European Championships was great to win but also a bit of a relief too,” said the 28-year-old Leander Club athlete.

“It’s really exciting to think that, in just a few months time, we are going to be at the Olympic Games in Brazil.

“I’ve not been before so it’s going to be a new environment, but it is any other regatta.

“It is the same six lanes racing, two kilometres long, a straight line, all level at the start and then someone says go.

“So yes it is exciting and everything that goes with it is going to be different and bigger and better, but you have got to remember what you do, day in, day out, and that is what got you there.

“That does not change whether you are racing at the World Championships or the Olympic Games, or whether you’re doing a training piece back on your home lake in the UK.”

The women’s eight boat has seen considerable change since last season, where they finished fourth at the World Championships, with half of the crew being replaced.

But their cox said there is no disharmony in the crew and that the group’s hard work is finally paying off.

“It does feel like the women’s eight has been building all through this Olympiad and is peaking now, at just the right time to be going fast,” added de Toledo.

“We have got very clear focuses and it does not matter who sits where, we are still moving forwards to our target of being on the podium in Rio.”

Founded in 1818, Leander Club’s first Olympic medal came in 1908 and rowers from the Henley-based club have gone on to win 111 in the past 108 years.

De Toledo moved to Leander Club in 2007 as a 19-year-old with ambitions to cox for the senior British team and, now she has made it, credited the club for helping her along the way.

“It was really important, for me, to have a club that was going to support me and really push me forward in my goals of trying to make the senior team, and that’s exactly what Leander have done,” she said.

Invesco Perpetual is a proud supporter of Leander Club. A 14-year relationship built on a shared philosophy and commitment to investing in people, nurturing talent and taking a long term approach, with 111 Olympic rowing medals won by Leander Club members since 1908.