Rowing/ World Championships: A great race; a battling performance a bronze medal in an Olympic event. The thousands of Irish who roared on the Irish lightweight four at the World Championships here in Eton yesterday got more than their money's worth.
The might of China looks like it could sweep the boards in lightweight rowing in the run-up to Beijing, but Ireland's Gearóid Towey, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin refused to entertain such thoughts. They took on the men in red all down the 2,000 metre course, but as the Chinese managed to nail it in the final 100 metres, France nipped in to deprive Ireland of the silver by 0.09 of a second.
"We just took the bull by the horns and went for it," said Towey afterwards. "I didn't care about anyone else: the Chinese, the French. We wanted to have a good row: we said 'if we have a good row we'll be up there'.
"So we just went for it and gave it as much as we could. From 500 to 250 to go we really emptied the tank. That's when the French made their move. We just couldn't stave them off," said the shattered Corkman. "We knew we were capable of winning a gold here. We had to honour that - and we did," he concluded.
"The crowd was amazing. I've been at the Olympics, but I never felt it like that - it was like all the support was for us," said Coakley. "It was amazing. From the start we had Irish people there with us. Fantastic."
Griffin took time to compose his thoughts, but came back accentuating the positive: "We go home with something. It's a second straight medal. I've medalled at every regatta under Harald Jahrling. That's a bloody statement in itself. It's not getting any easier. Halfway to the Beijing Olympics, which is the goal, we've paved half that way with medals."
At the end of the race, Lin Zhang, the Chinese number three, stood up in the boat and pumped his arms in an unusual gesture for his team. Bowman Huang Zhongming vocalised the importance of the win: "We planned to row our best ever race. To get the first men's gold in an Olympic event was fantastic. We've gained a lot of honour for men's rowing in China."
Jahrling beamed and praised his crew. "They had the courage to go out with the Chinese, who are actually, the way it looks right now, a little too fast for us. I mean 5:49 (the winning time was five minutes 49.43 seconds), that's a pretty sleek time."
Sinéad Jennings and Niamh Ní Cheilleachair had started the Irish fans cheering earlier in the day with a stirring win in the B final - placing them seventh in the world. Last year's champions, Germany, could only finish fourth, and the 2005 silver medallists, the United States were fifth.
Jennings said they had overcome the "big problem" of the semis, the slow first 500 metres, and their strength in the middle of the race had set them up for the storming finish.
"Coming into the last 500 we had a very good 250 (metres), and then, just (the chants of) 'Ireland' took us home. The crowd! We couldn't possibly lose at that stage, when we heard that shouting for us."
In the A final, China's Dongxiang Xu and Shimin Yan won the gold with a pillar to post win. Earlier, the Chinese had shattered the old world best time in winning the lightweight quadruple scull - with 15-year-old Xuefei Fan in the three seat.
The Ireland men's four had a tremendous win in their B final on Saturday, beating Canada over the second half of the race. They were .28 of a second down on the Canadians with 500 metres to go, but as both crews pushed it was the Irish, rating 45 strokes a minute, who found more. They crossed the line .73 of a second ahead. Stroke Alan Martin said his crew was conscious of the quality of the Canada boat.
"We knew on paper they'd got good guys in it. But we knew they were beatable. We were never that far off them in the previous three races here. We knew if we rowed the best we could we had a chance of beating them. And we did that."
John Treacy, chief executive of the Sports Council, and Seán Kelly, new executive chairman of the Irish Institute of Sport, were present and impressed. Jahrling said yesterday the new Institute can help bring his team along.
The Sports Council announced it will grant each of the lightweight four a €7,500 medal bonus. Alan Campbell, affected by equipment failure, finished sixth, but the men's single sculls final on Saturday was dramatic. Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand caught and passed Marcel Hacker in a thrilling final 30 metres, divesting the German, who had led for 1,970 metres, of the world best time as well. As Drysdale was crowned champion, Hacker was prone on the ground nearby with an ambulance rushing to him. The big German recovered quickly.
