Poorer cousins get rich reward

ROWING: Nothing stays still. Even as the faithful Irish contingent that had gathered in the hot morning sun on the slopes of Schinias came to terms with the merciless elimination of Ireland's double sculls team, the men's lightweight four were on the water.

And out of that crystal blue course came something unexpected and wonderful to celebrate. The four team, regarded as the poorer cousins of the feted pair in the build-up to these Olympics, fused together to row an exceptional race and qualify for Sunday morning's final.

Nobody cared that the time the Irish clocked in was the slowest of the six nations that will race for medals. Momentum and a good feeling about the Irish possibilities were increasing as dawn broke over Athens yesterday. But drawn in the same semi-final as a strong Danish team, the Irish needed to row a flawless race and from the beginning, when they established a third-place footing among fluctuating opponents, there was a convincing and steady look to their row.

They prepared for Greece in relative obscurity, a close team led by the veteran of many bleaker Irish rowing experiences, Niall O'Toole. Aged 32 now, the Dublin man has found redemption in a sport he thought he had abandoned for several seasons before forming an alliance with the three younger rowers, Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley and Paul Griffin.

Yesterday morning confirmed for him the wisdom of that faith. A smart and no-nonsense bunch, they were pleased but hardly blinking in wonderment when they reappeared on dry land after their warm-down.

"In a semi-final you fight for your life, so you either get into the final or you go home," shrugged Archibald.

"I don't know what the final distance was but it was pretty tight I am sure."

It was. They got in on a qualifying time of 5:58.89, just over three seconds behind the Danes, who rowed the course like Vikings. But the Irish were more concerned with the persistent and challenging effort that came from the Russians, rowing out in lane six and closing marginally on the Irish boat over an exciting last 500 metres.

Unlike the earlier race, as the oars hit the water and the Irish managed to stay those crucial inches ahead of the Russian men, there was a growing sense that they had enough in reserve to finish the right side of a pure dogfight. The crew were spent afterwards but also exhilarated.

"For the first while it was just pure relief but now I am happy," said Griffin. "We knew it was going to be very hard today. We knew we had the calibre in the boat and that we should be in the final but this is the Olympics and it is a brutal business."

The four were in the warm-up zone while their doubles compatriots, Lynch and Towey, were suffering a slow death out of the water.

The members of the second Irish boat had no knowledge of how the pair had fared until after their race. The performance of the four was a measure of consolation for the Irish pair and for the coaches, Thor Nilsen and Tony O'Connor.

After a fairly muted first week for Irish fortunes, there is at last the prospect of a race for precious metal. The Irish will start in lane six for a race that is scheduled for 9.10 a.m. (7.10 Irish time) and will be regarded as outsiders for the medal placing.

But they have vowed to be bold and ambitious from the gun. This was not the crew that many anticipated waking up early to follow for Sunday morning's final.

The presence of green in a big race at the midway point of these Olympics is something to celebrate in itself. But the Irish boys are on a roll now, so who knows?