Irish crew deliver on promise but finish sixth

ROWING: Although there were eight seconds between the Danish boat that finished first in yesterday morning's lightweight fours division, the Irish crew talked in terms of years afterwards.

As promised, Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley, Niall O'Toole and Paul Griffin went into yesterday's 2,000 metres race in adventurous mood, vowing not to row an inhibited Olympic final. In fact, they came out like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, firing wantonly in the hot morning sun against odds that were terrifically stacked against them.

It was brave. It was all anyone could have asked of them.

As befitted their lane-six positioning, the Irish crew finished last in a final in which they were not even tipped to feature.

There was a carnival mood around Schinias for the first of the early-morning races and lining up alongside the seasoned teams from Australia and Denmark made the Irish boys appreciate that this was no ordinary race.

"You tell yourself that," said Coakley. "But there is a big crowd out there, there is a lot of media interest and you know what you are racing for. So we just wanted to go out and try and get into a medal position and stay there."

They did the first part, shooting over the first two 200 metres and in second place behind the remorseless Danish crew after 500 metres.

Watching the race unfold, an Irish roar went around as the scoreboard flashed the standings. Over the next two quarters though, all changed. The effort of the start drained the Irish boat.

"You think when you are in a medal position that you can do whatever it takes to stay there," said O'Toole. "But then you have another two or three minutes of rowing to go and you are in a situation that your legs are burning and your brain is screaming for more. Your brain is writing cheques that your body can't cash."

The race itself was an affirmation of the superior standards the Danish four have demonstrated on the water for the past four years.

Rowing is too tough and calculating a game to allow for dreaming or sentiment and even though the Irish team were soaked in sweat and panting hard for oxygen afterwards, they were already figuring the next step in their minds.

"I don't want to nail down any one thing," explained Griffin, "but it you look at experience alone, the Aussies and Danes and Canadians were all there in Atlanta eight years ago. I was a gossun then. You don't make Olympics champions in four or five weeks.

"For us now it is about working to be on the podium in 2012 and that will take moral support from our families and the right backing. It is a long-term investment, this."

But O'Toole, the grand old man of the team at 34, will not be around then. He was hinting, however, at having another crack in Beijing.

"Those three lads will be a force to be reckoned with in four years' time. I don't want to overstate my claim to the three seat but they need somebody strong. My wife, Fiona, gave me great support all along so you never know. If Thor (Nilsen, Ireland coach) is leading the head of the group . . . but I will be 38 and if someone wants to take the seat off me, they would have a scrap on their hands."

The respect among rowers is of the rarest kind. After the race, the Danish crew sought those that finished behind them and consoled them. Just yards from where O'Toole spoke with Irish television, Australian Simon Burgess had his arm around the Danish stroke, Eskild Ebbesen.

"I will visit you in Osssh-ie some time," promised Ebbesen.

"This," Burgess told the Australian news station, "is the best lightweight in the world. This guy deserves it all."

Yesterday morning, it was his. The medal ceremony took place at water's edge. The Irish team looked on, listening to the great cheers and the anthems. Though exhausted, they were not discouraged. The next time they sit in a boat together, they begin the deep and painful process of just trying to relive this day again.