A 70-year-old woman from south Dublin will compete in the finals of a World Rowing virtual event this weekend after taking up the sport last December.
Mary McBride from Dún Laoghaire is taking part in the 1-minute race for women aged 70 to 74.
She will compete from her local gym and will be up against women from Canada, the US, Germany and Thailand.
She described her participation as a very accidental thing, but said that she has her fingers and toes crossed for this Saturday.
Ms McBride said that she has never competed in any sport before, not even in her school days.
She explained that she met a man while swimming in Dún Laoghaire, and he said that he was rowing in the gym and asked if she would be interested.
Ms McBride went along, and a few weeks later he suggested the indoor rowing competition.
She said that she was interested by the fact it was only a minute long and said she would give it a go.
"I didn't think really any great deal about it until I was signed up.
"Then I began to think, my god Canada, USA, Germany and here am I, three months into it. Hopefully it'll all be good on the day."
She said that last week was the first time she had raced a full race, and qualified.
This Saturday, she is setting out to try and beat her time from last Saturday.
"If I don’t get there, I’m thrilled to be competing," she said.
Speaking about her training, she said that she goes to the gym at 7am and does a warm up with weights and stretches.
She then gets on the machine for 20 minutes.
Ms McBride said that it is not excessive, adding that a lot of people of any age could take it up and find it enjoyable.
"It's fascinating, and it gives a huge boost to see people in the gym now, standing around and wishing you well," she said.
She thanked her coach David O'Reilly, saying she was lucky to have him.
Ms McBride said that her family did not know much about it.
"I kept a very low profile about it because I really couldn't believe it myself. It just seemed awesome, and a kind of accidental world rowing champion," she said. "Very accidental."
