Olympic medallist rowers trade oars for roars

COLERAINE ATHLETES:EVEN THE local Coleraine Olympic medallist rowers – brothers Richard and Peter Chambers and Alan Campbell – wouldn't have fancied being out on the Bann yesterday as heavy driving rain and winds lashed the town and the river.

But it didn’t deter thousands of people turning out to welcome their Northern Ireland valiants who, as was regularly and proudly pointed out yesterday, delivered more medals to Coleraine “than were brought to many a fair-sized country” during the Olympics.

The Chambers brothers, who won silver in the lightweight fours, and a beyond-exhausted Campbell, who took bronze in the single sculls, weren’t quite prepared for the extent of the welcome. They first gathered for a reception at the Bann Rowing Club where they learned their skills, and were later led by a single piper from the club to the town centre, flanked by a guard of honour of young rowers carrying sculling blades.

They received an almighty welcome when they turned on to Bridge Street which was chock-a-block with Coleraine people and many more from throughout the North who had thronged the Co Derry town to pay tribute to the three Team GB rowers.

“We knew we would get a massive welcome, but we were not expecting anything like this,” said Peter Chambers. “Heaven help us if we had won gold,” added Campbell.

Aside from the rowers, the happiest people in Coleraine yesterday were the Chambers and Campbell families, including Alan Campbell’s 91-year-old grandmother, Anna, and his aunt, Anne Hazelton, home from Anchorage in Alaska to join in the celebrations. “We watched the race at three in the morning and nearly woke up our neighbours we made so much noise. We celebrated with a Baileys,” she said.

US television didn’t show how, after the race, Sir Steve Redgrave had to help a drained Campbell to the medal ceremony. “Since then my feet haven’t touched the ground,” he said. “We are being treated like rock stars.”

Also in Coleraine yesterday to congratulate the sportsmen was the Sinn Féin Minister for Sport Carál Ní Chuilín. After she provided £3 million in grants to Northern Ireland boxing, there was no surprise that she had her ear severely bent about also supporting rowing. She made no firm commitment but did say, “I will come back to do a proper assessment and see what are the needs.”