Winning the waterskiing gold medal at the Europe, Africa and Middle East Disabled Championships is some achievement. But to have done so at the age of 13 . . . Well Eamon Prunty can truly be described this week as riding high on the crest of a wave.
The Castleknock athlete, who has had spina bifida since birth and is confined to wheelchair, came first at the 1998 EAME disabled championships at the end of last month. In the championships, which this year were held in Aqaba Jordan, there is no junior category in the event, so was up against men in their 20s and 30s - men who are physically better developed and who are able to train far more rigorously, not having such worries as homework to cramp their skiing style.
"I do spend every weekend training," says a slight, bespectacled Eamon in the living-room of a friend's house in Blanchardstown, "but others, the older athletes, would be training every day." You can catch him every weekend at Blessington Lakes in Co Wicklow - skimming the waves behind the power of a speed-boat. He will train in all weathers, such is his dedication.
"Before I went to Jordan it was freezing training in Blessington," he says with a grimace. "Almost all the time here I don't feel like training. But once you get in the water it's alright. Sometimes you don't want to try the hard tricks because you're afraid of falling in - it's so cold."
Little attention has been paid to the rise and rise of this world-class athlete. Not more than a handful of supporters were there to welcome his triumph at Dublin Airport two Saturdays ago, even though the medal that adorned his chest was presented to him by Prince Ali Hussein, brother of Jordan's ruler, King Hussein. Eamon is the current European bronze medal holder and in the other event in which he competed, the Senior Slalom, he created a new Irish record, finishing just out of the medals in fourth place.
Eamon first skied the waves-fantastic when he was nine, following a suggestion from his mother. "She heard someone talking about it on the radio," he recalls. "So she rang and found out about it . We went down to the club in Cork to try it out, and I just liked it," he says simply.
The family - comprising his older twin brothers Oliver and Gavin (15) and sister Sineid (16) - rented a house that summer in Cork, and the young Eamon "just got really into the waterskiing. After that I used to travel to Cork most weekends to train. I started entering competitions and got a bronze medal that year in the European championships in Cork. "The next year I competed in France, and I didn't do well in that at all. I fell. I felt lousy, absolutely devastated and didn't go to Manchester the next year. But the next year, '97, I got a bronze medal again in Denmark."
"At this stage now," continues his father, John, "he has to go abroad to get the kind of training he really needs. He has travelled to the UK and he's been to Florida to train. Especially for the slalom, he will probably have to go to America to get the training if he wants to compete at world level."
The father says that he was apprehensive about his young son getting involved in the sport in the early years. "There is of course an element of danger. You're behind a boat being towed along by a line and he does take his fair share of falls. But when things go wrong, well he just picks himself up, dusts himself off and gets back on with it.
`He is obviously unusually gifted at the sport. All the other competitors from around the world have encouraged him over the years and expressed the fact that he has the potential to be a world champion. In fact he didn't expect to get the European championship this year. He thought maybe bronze. On the day though," he grins, "things went well for him. He pulled off all his tricks. To score in the waterskiing you have to get air under the skis. It's not just flying over the water. You have to propel yourself out of the water and then turn at 180 degree and 160 degree angles. It's very complex and requires a lot of skill."
A week off school was necessary for the Jordan success, but John is adamant that school still comes first. Training is affected by school-work rather than vice versa, he says.
"They're nice about it," says Eamon of the teachers at Castleknock Community College. "They don't say I give it too much time."
As for the sponsoring of Ireland's best kept athletic secret, John nods that all the trips and training and equipment have thus far been funded by the family. "It is expensive, but we are hoping that maybe, now he's getting successful, money might be a bit more forthcoming.
"We are very, very proud of him", he says looking at Eamon. "We were very worried about him in his infancy. He had a lot of operations, on his legs especially. But he has done tremendously and brought us on trips we would never have gone on. We would never have gone to Denmark or Jordan." The future, as far as Eamon is concerned, holds only the World Championships, which are to be held in Stains, near Heathrow, England in August next year. After that he hopes the sport may be made an Olympic event. It is unlikely to be in the next games but should almost certainly be part of them by the time the 2004 Olympics come round. "I will finish up school and that," nods Eamon with a slight air of 14year-old resignation. "But at the moment," he brightens, "I can't think of anything I'd want to do when I finish up except this. It's always what I want to do now, when I finish up school for just the weekend!"