The hugely talented Irish lightweight men's four (LM4-) rowed supremely to win silver in the World Rowing Championship final, on the Nagaragawa International Course, in Japan, this morning.
The quartet of Paul Griffin, in stroke seat from Muckross, Queen's University club man Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley, and bowman Timmy Harnedy, both from Skibbereen, finished 1.35seconds down on winners France in a time of 5.49.26min, with the Italians in third.
As they came off the water, to a rousing reception from their team mates, crew captain Eugene Coakley talked through the race: "The French got such a great start, but we always knew they would, that's their style. We work on building a strong rhythm down the middle of the course, and then opening up and attacking from the 1000m, which we did.
"However, the strong tailwind really suited the French style and in those conditions when someone gets a start like that is a very hard to claw back. A headwind would have been more conducive to our style of racing."
He added: "We knew we were the only crew there with the potential to charge them down, and we threw everything at it, and as we did there were attacks also coming on us from the left and right, with the Germans, Australians and fast finishing Italians.
"I've just seen the times and the French rowed 5.47min out there, like that's two seconds off the World best time. We're just elated to have fought off the Italians on the line, and we're very happy to have won silver, finally all the hard work has paid off, it's a brilliant feeling altogether!"
Earlier in the final of the lightweight women's double sculls (LW2x), the Irish duo of Heather Boyle and Sinéad Jennings put in a strong performance to finish fifth in a time of 6.54.79min. Germany took gold, with the USA taking silver and Finland bronze.
As with the four, this twosome is more suited to a headwind as their strength, and not their speed, is their greatest asset. This experienced couple are the first Irish women to ever reach an Olympic class World final, which was the target for this year. The breakthrough is all the more notable considering they only came together as this combination at the beginning of August as Jennings was suffering from a stress fracture injury.
Reflecting on the race Boyle remarked: "As with the light four, we're more suited to a headwind, and that coupled with not getting a good start left us with everything to do today. We tried to make a move at 500m, but the others had just done so well off the start we just couldn't reel in the deficit."
Medical student Jennings added: "While we are that bit disappointed not to have raced to our potential today we are very aware of how much progress we have made over the last few weeks, and this regatta in particular. We're effectively a new combination, when we raced together last year Heather was in bow seat and we've changed that around this year, it has really paid dividends."
She concluded: "We have come further than ever before here, attaining an Olympic qualifying position, that is what we set out to do, we're just dying to get back at it already, we're really excited about what we can achieve in this boat with a little bit more time together."
The Irish lightweight men's pair (LM2-) completed the regatta for the Irish finishing sixth in the B final, an overall placing of twelfth, which will serve as a valuable learning experience for this young twosome.
Gifu 2005 has been a hugely successful regatta for the Irish, in their first season under the stewardship of former double Olympic champion Harald Jarhling, with the three Olympic boats lying within the Olympic qualifying standard, and the remaining two within the top twelve in the world.
