Lynch and Towey embrace new tests

Rowing News: Two of Ireland's stars, Sam Lynch and Gearóid Towey, will not be available for selection for the national team this season.

Lynch, who says he seriously considered retiring after the Olympic Games, has opted to go heavyweight and will spend the year working on his physique, while Towey is taking on a huge challenge - he is going to row the Atlantic.

Lynch and Towey are both former world champions, but finished a disappointing 10th at the Athens Olympics as a lightweight double. However, both say their chosen course was a long-term decision.

"It's something I always wanted to do," said Towey of his participation in the Atlantic Rowing Race. "The race started in 1997, but even before that I was interested. I'm big into adventure - in things that really test you."

He considered the event in its early days, but put priority on the more standard rowing discipline, which yielded him a world title in the lightweight pair in 2001. Now he feels the time is right, as Beijing in 2008 is still in his sights, even with this year spent preparing for the Atlantic race, which begins in the Canaries in November.

"This may be the hardest thing I'll ever do. The experience should be amazing."

His preparations so far have included sessions in Arklow Boat Club, home of the first Irishmen to take part in the race, Eamon and Peter Kavanagh, who crossed the Atlantic in a fine time of 58 days and four hours in 1997.

Towey has just returned from New Zealand, where he met Atlantic oarsman Rob Hamill, who with partner Phil Stubbs set a record for a double of 41 days in 1997 - only a day has been lopped off since - and to organise the purchase of a boat.

Towey would prefer to row a double, and says: "I'm in the process of selecting a partner at the moment."

He is coy about who else is in the picture, but remains strongly of the opinion that the effort should be an all-Irish one.

"My biggest task - okay the race is the biggest task - but my biggest challenge is to raise sponsorship," Towey says. "That will be a massive undertaking."

He reckons he will need "at least 70,000", although he has had a pledge of some support from soft drinks maker Red Bull.

New Irish coach Harald Jahrling has been told of Towey's plans and is "happy to support it", according to Towey, who hopes to make part of his programme rowing across the Irish Sea - "as you do", he jokes.

The super-fit Corkman, who doesn't smoke or drink, also hopes to fit in a marathon, maybe in London, this year.

Unusually for top-class athletes, both Towey and Lynch will aim to be much heavier at the end of the year than at the beginning. Towey's lean frame would be in danger over the long haul of the Atlantic race - "I don't want to come off the ocean at 64 kgs" - and Lynch has finally admitted he is a big man in a thin man's body.

"It will be the first year since I became an adult that I won't be on a diet," the 29-year-old Limerick man says.

With Giles Warrington of the National Coaching and Training Centre, Lynch will work to build up muscle, with any regattas he competes in fitting into this picture.

"It will be a training programme, not a racing programme," says Lynch of his efforts to become a competitive heavyweight. "In a racing schedule you would spend four to five months building muscle and then work on endurance and intensity, losing fat. We need a year to do it properly."

Lynch was by far the best lightweight single sculler in the world through 2001 and 2002 - he was world champion in both years - but he does not feel it is realistic to now move up and beat the giants in the open single: "I have no illusions on that score. I can be a competent heavyweight crew rower."

An Olympian at 20 (he was in the Ireland lightweight four which finished fourth in the final in 1996), a world champion through the early years of this century and a friend of such as Olaf Tufte, the world single sculls champion, it looked as if Lynch was firmly on course to make his mark in Athens. But it didn't work out that way.

"Last year took an awful lot out of me. I was just so tired after Athens," he says. "I was so stale. The disappointment was hard to get over.

"Apart from 1997, when I was injured, the Olympics was my worst result. I considered stopping altogether."

He has talked it over with Jahrling, whose enthusiasm has been a big help in making his decision on the year ahead.

"There is still room for improvement. I still haven't got everything out of it," Lynch says.

Now Beijing is the target. The final one. "I'll be 32 at the next Games. They will be my swansong."

The fourth-year medical student says he is looking forward to the year and the change of focus. "I'll take the season out. Get my personal life back on track."

Jahrling may be losing two international stars, but he may gain two assistant coaches. The Irish Amateur Rowing Union has confirmed it has submitted a proposal to the Sports Council to do away with the post of high performance director, while seeking "at least" two new coaching posts.