Arguably Irish rowing's greatest half hour brought to a close what was certainly its most successful World Championships yesterday when silver medals from the lightweight Coxless pairs were added to almost immediately by lightweight quad bronze.
Having spent the whole season racing the Olympic Four, Tony O'Connor and Neville Maxwell said chasing their third world's medal in the pair again was a shock. It was probably a widely shared feeling among the other finalists; the Swiss almost alone stood out as rivals for gold, after the week's qualifying races.
Mathias Binder and Benedikt Schmidt finished one place behind Ireland as part of an Olympic four last year, and from the start of yesterday's final showed threatening speed. It may have been underestimated by the Irish pair who at the halfway mark were trailing in third place, a length adrift.
The Swiss called a push, O'Connor and Maxwell responded but although the extra gear took them past the Danish crew into second place, Binder and Schmidt were still moving away to safety with 750 metres to the line. The Irish pair stepped up the pressure again, put in the fastest final 500 metres split time and at last began to close the lead down. At the finish though they were still a third of a length short - their time of 6.33 minutes won silver to add to an existing collection of silver and bronzes.
Within minutes of the pair leaving the podium, the lightweight quad - Emmet O'Brien, Neal Byrne, Brendan Dolan and John Armstrong - were on their way down the course and defending their position behind Italy and the Germans. Pushes at 650 and 1,100 metres built up a cushion against the American danger crew behind but respite was brief.
"We knew the US had a small fade in the third quarter of the race and it was important to be ahead of them before they got their steam up again. In the last 250 they came at us like a train, I was just hanging in at the end, my legs were burning," said Byrne.
Less than half a second separated the two boats at the finish; Italy, who drafted in Eights oarsman Stefano Vasaline at a late stage in the season, won their second consecutive gold from last year's German silver medalist.
Both Irish boats, the quad and the pair, had points to prove at the championships with bitterness between the two reaching new heights this season. Impressed by the quads achievement, director of coaching Thor Neilsen last night suggested that much of the "them against us" feeling had been manufactured for crew motivation.
Neilsen also conceded that mistakes had been made by Irish management this season. "After the Olympics everyone was tired, the winter training did not build a big enough platform to support the heavy training that followed and I think it killed them. If you're playing with such a small squad it's like playing Russian roulette - if anyone drops out then you are soft in the head. The ideal situation would be 6-8 sweep rowers and the same numbers of scullers in the squad," said Neilsen.
The satisfactory weekend was only tempered by early disappointment for the women's coxless pairs. Having had to paddle out their qualifying race, UCD students Vanessa Lawrenson and Debbie Stack started Saturday's League final with fitness problems. Stack was labouring under the effects of a virus and the power quickly began to dribble away. Unable to follow the pace of the lead Britons - flu hit Cath Bishop being replaced by Nation's Cup medalist Francesca Zino - the Irish pair eventually limped in to finish the 12th flanked crew overall.
Already focussed on gaining the physical presence of other crews here, Lawrenson was confident of further improvement next year. "At the beginning of the week we knew we could beat the Dutch girls. That was what is so disappointing, losing to crews that we knew we could beat."
