Towey relishing his last hurrah

ROWING:"I CAN'T wait to do this part." The Ireland rowing team goes into action next weekend, and only hours before he flew out to Beijing, Gearóid Towey said he was relishing the prospect of competition. The Games are set to be a last hurrah for the 31-year-old Fermoy man, who will base himself in London next year to study drama.

Towey has been a top-class international athlete for well over a decade. At only 19, in 1996, he won gold at the world under-23 championships. At senior world championship level he has a gold (2001), and three bronze medals (1999, 2003 and 2006).

But the Olympics have not brought comparable success for the Corkman. He was (controversially, given his form) a reserve in 1996; the lightweight four of himself, Tony O'Connor, Neville Maxwell and Neal Byrne faded back to a disappointing 11th in Sydney 2000; and in 2004 in Athens his partnership with Sam Lynch in the lightweight double scull went out at the semi-final stage after a build-up that saw Lynch having to taper his weight radically on the day of the race.

Towey says the mood of the present lightweight four is "relaxed" in the build-up to the Games. For Towey the four years since Athens have included an attempt to row the Atlantic that ended with a rescue mission after his boat capsized in mid-ocean and a year away from the sport when it looked as if he might have thrown his hat at it. But Towey says he is a better competitor now that he has more strings to his bow.

"I feel a lot stronger now than four years ago," he stresses.

The lightweight four for Beijing features the first-time Olympian Cathal Moynihan, who says he has dreamed of taking part in the Games since he was a child, along with Paul Griffin and Richard Archibald, who backboned the crew that finished sixth in Athens, and Towey.

A medal would make sense of all the effort they have put in.

"It's the end of the road for a couple of us," says Towey. "I definitely want to go out on a high."

Back home, the sport is mourning the passing of Walter (Wally) Stevens, who was a greatly respected athlete and mentor.

He was in the Ireland squad at the Olympics in 1948, and went on to serve as president and secretary of both his club, Neptune, and the Irish Amateur Rowing Union.

On the water, the Carrick-on-Shannon Sprints are scheduled for this Sunday.

Farther afield, the 2010 World Rowing Championships in New Zealand are set to be moved back to October 31st to November 7th.