Rowing NewsEast Germany and Australia: two countries associated with both provocation and fitness, and when Ireland's top rowers assemble at Blessington this weekend to train for the first time under new Ireland coach Harald Jahrling they may glimpse both strains in the make-up of the man who will guide the sport here for at least the next four years.
This tall, tanned and athletic-looking man was a leading part of the progressive Australian coaching system for the last decade and a half and is married to an Australian. But his credentials as a leading light in world rowing were built on gold medals for the DDR as an oarsman in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics Games and coaching in East Germany from the time he retired in 1984 until his move to New South Wales in 1990.
Over the last month he has gone out of his way to make himself available to athletes - basing himself in Dublin until the NRC in Cork is ready next year. When he says his system is "athlete centred" his words ring true - as he showed when he gave his blessing to the year-long sabbatical from international duty of Gearóid Towey and Sam Lynch.
"I don't have a problem with that at all," he says. "When athletes say they need a break they say it for a reason."
His system is not entirely about facilitating the athlete, however. He argues against the reappointment of a high performance director, to whom he would report, and for two assistant coaches who would report to him. "My system is athlete centred and driven by the coach," he stresses, and returns to the point immediately. "The coach needs to drive the system."
He talks about developing the women's side of the sport and focusing on heavyweight men, but the over-riding aim is success in the 2008 Olympics. "We want to win an Olympic medal in Beijing, that's what we are looking for." Should he not be aiming for more than one? The colour under the steel grey hair heightens. "One would be fine. Let's just take it from there. We were so close in 2004 and not everything went to plan. I have looked at some of the lead-up and I think we can do things a bit better."
What exactly might be improved? He is loath to take this head on, but says: "If mistakes were made, we must not make the same mistakes again. In the Olympics one mistake and you're out. It's like poker, you blink and you're out. This is how tough it is."
Was it a mistake that the Irish lightweight double of Towey and Lynch did not stay with the rest of the squad in Athens? His view on the general point is clear.
"I don't believe in people being off on their own and coming in to wear the dress of the team. Sleep, live together. Like an army." This is how to develop the team spirit which can lift the athletes, he believes.
His time in Australia ended with the "lay down Sally" case. Sally Robbins deprived one of Jahrling's crews of the chance of an Athens medal by stopping rowing - something she had done before at the World Championships. Jahrling deals easily with this. "We had a little problem with her. Like with any athlete you try to solve the problem, try and see if you're successful. In sport that's how it is. That's the beauty of the game."
His mind was made up to leave in any case, as he had gone "a bit stale". "I wanted to take on different problems." He smiles. "And they are surely different here! It's a system that needs a lot of refining and shaping up. I knew that from the beginning. The structure needs some changes. It's always better for an outsider to make changes.
"2008 is what it's all about. We do have good athletes capable of winning Olympic medals. We just need to do it."
