Keohane celebrates after world coastal gold

ROWING:THE AUTUMN winds may be blowing in Ireland, but it is World Championship time in rowing. The senior World Championships begin in New Zealand on Sunday, with two Ireland adaptive crews competing. But one Irishman is this week already celebrating a fantastic win in the World Coastal Championships.

A piper led John Keohane into the village of Kilmacsimon in Cork on Tuesday when he returned with his single scull gold medal from the world championships in Istanbul to a rousing reception in a coastal rowing heartland. It is the first time an Irishman has won this title in the relatively new championships.

Keohane (31), who works as a boatbuilder in Kinsale, had 22 seconds to spare over Alberto Exarte of the San Pedro club in Spain, with Giuseppe Alberti of Italy third in Saturday’s final.

The boats used for coastal rowing are shorter and wider than the Olympic-class events, but Keohane has mastered both disciplines. In recent years he joined the Lee Valley club, based at the National Rowing Centre, and after upping his training regime to six and seven days a week this season he took the intermediate single sculls title at the National Championships last month.

Indeed it has been a great year for the 6ft 5in (1m 97cm) Corkman, as he was part of the crew which won the senior four at the Irish Coastal Championships.

The two Irish crews which compete at the World Championships in Lake Karapiro are unlikely to take gold, but the LTA mixed coxed four are targeting a medal. The crew of Anne Marie McDaid, Sarah Caffrey, Shane Ryan, Kevin Du Toit and cox Helen Arbuthnot would be disappointed if they did not feature in the A Final (top six).

The LTA class is for rowers with a disability who have functional use of their legs, trunk and arms, and who can use the sliding seat.

In the AS single scull, Donegal man Karol Doherty faces 11 other competitors, and he also hopes to reach the A Final. The AS class is for rowers who have no or minimal trunk function. An AS class rower is able to apply force predominantly using the arms and/or shoulders.

Both crews go into action on Monday in the championships, which were pushed very late in the year because of fears of unsuitable weather earlier in New Zealand.

Because of the awkward time, Ireland performance director Martin McElroy opted not to send able-bodied crews to the event which has attracted teams from just 49 countries. Irish elite athletes will concentrate on trials in December, which will incorporate the Irish indoor championships, sited at Dublin City University this year.

The preparation of the Britain team for the World Championships has been tinged with sadness at the news of the death at just 51 of Andy Holmes, who won gold medals at the Olympic Games in 1984 and 1988.

Holmes had taken up coaching after a time away from the sport. He is believed to have died from the bacterial infection Weil’s disease: it is a danger to water-borne athletes.

Meanwhile, Mark Pollock has been working hard to get a hold of life again after breaking his back last summer when he fell while attending Henley Royal Regatta. The adventurer and former Trinity oarsman, who is blind, reports in posts on his website he is taking on rehab with renewed vigour: “(T)his is where I want to be. This is where I am concentrating my effort now – getting fit and strong and putting myself in the best possible position to gain or train function and feeling back below my belly button,” he says on markpollock.posterous.com.

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