Rowing World Championships: Ireland's lightweight four - who have few peers - talk to Liam Gorman about the simple joys of going straight from A to B
The four young men sit loose-limbed and relaxed, sipping coffee and ready for questions. Ordinary guys, yet more somehow. A few days later you are within metres of the Armagh football team as they form the pre-match huddle in the cauldron of Croke Park. You see it again. The physique. The focus. Athletes honed for action, preparing to prove they are the best at what they do.
Paul Griffin, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and Tim Harnedy are among the word's elite in one of the toughest Olympic sports. They go into the World Rowing Championships, which begin in Gifu, Japan, next Monday, as one of the favourites in the lightweight four, one of eight male Olympic disciplines.
And yet no one knows them, or at least few outside the world of rowing. No big sponsorship deals, no rows over logos, a sop now and then from the sports media. Does it bother them that they are among the top athletes in Ireland yet seem to be under the radar for most people?
"Not at all, really. It's a good thing - there are easier ways to get known, y'know!" says Harnedy, laughing. "If you (only) wanted to get known you wouldn't be doing this."
The Skibbereen man, who at 22 is the youngest of the four, but often vocalises the feelings of the team, is convincing in his dismissal of the attraction of fame.
"It's nothing to do with that. If we weren't ever on the back page of a newspaper it wouldn't make a difference. We're not looking for publicity, we're looking to do something - the reason we are here is that we always wanted to do this for ourselves."
Griffin, the Kerryman who strokes the crew and has the gift of finding a telling phrase, chips in to say their recent win in the World Cup at the Mecca of rowing, Lucerne, has not changed them.
"You can't get cocky at all, or start thinking you're the business. We still have to be humble. We're only pups still, like, compared to what came before us, or what people have done before us. We have to keep it all in perspective."
Griffin admits he did feel rowers were not given the credit they deserved, but says he has put that behind him. He quotes national coach Harald Jahrling.
"Harald said if you want to be (rowing) world champion or Olympic champion you've got to be one of the toughest people on the planet. And we know that."
Archibald agrees. "If people knew how hard rowing was, that's enough, I think. We're not looking for celebrity status here."
The week ahead could move them in that direction, of course. The World Cup series involves three regattas each season and the final one, at Lucerne, this year is a strong indication of which crews are contenders for World Championship honours.
The Ireland four's win at Lucerne was a breakthrough: the first time an Ireland crew had won at World Cup level in an Olympic event. But it was the logical progression for a crew who have been moving towards the top of the world rankings for five years.
With some changes in personnel, they have progressed from medallists in the World Under-23 regatta (2000 and 2001) to finalists in the senior World Championships in 2003 and finalists again in the Athens Olympics last year (they finished sixth).
So what is the aim for the week ahead? Archibald, a Derryman who has combined his rowing with qualifying as an architect at Queen's University, says they are not locked on to a particular target: "I think we're just aiming to do our best. If we row our best we're at the standard to win a medal."
The main threats? France won well at the second of the three World Cup regattas in Munich, where this Ireland crew finished third, but the French were not at Lucerne. And Canada and the US come into the reckoning for the first time in Gifu.
For all the caution, this crew would be disappointed if they did not win a medal come tomorrow week, the day set for the A final. Archibald, Coakley and Griffin are in their mid-20s and, when asked about his long-term plans, Coakley says he feels it is time to reap rewards for the sacrifices made.
"I'm 26. I'd like to start winning now. You say if you won would you get out of it? We've worked for the last 10 years to get this - to get to the level where we can compete. I'd like to stay and ply my trade for the next 10 years."
Coakley is just under 6ft 5in, but not much over 11 stone come race time. Lightweights cannot exceed 72.5 kg. Thus, for all the desirable locations the sport visits each season, eating with abandon is not part of the scenario. But they laugh off questions on whether the ascetic lifestyle gets to them.
"September (the end of the season) is like early Christmas," quips Griffin to laughter from the other three. All those sessions on Blessington lakes "freezing cold, fingers numb, blood gone", as Coakley puts it, just make the pleasure of winning more acute.
The really tough time is in the build-up to a new season, when athletes train not knowing whether they will be in the picture when crews are formed. But Harnedy tells how, recently, heading for training on Inniscarra Lake on a lovely day, they began to tell themselves how lucky they were.
"We're living the life," says Griffin.
Ireland has become a power in lightweight rowing, but since the days of Seán Drea and the Garda crews in the 1970s and 1980s little impression has been made in the open grades until the rise of the men's open four this year. Have they any idea why the big men have been slower off the mark?
"Rowing is a minority sport in this country. It is not exclusive; it doesn't exclude anybody. But people go to other sports rather than go to rowing," says Archibald.
Harnedy cuts in: "I think it is because the breakthrough was made in lightweight. Tooler made the breakthrough in the single (Niall O'Toole won the lightweight single sculls title at the World Championships in 1991) and then medals started coming in."
He goes on: "I think you'll find the heavyweights are going to start performing too. Once there's someone there, once there's someone helping with the standard I think they'll move on."
There is a certain irony here, as Harnedy lost his place to O'Toole for last year's Olympics, but the young Skibbereen man wants to give credit to the athletes who preceded them. The theme is echoed by the others, who mention Sam Lynch, a world champion in 2001 and 2002, and Gearóid "Gags" Towey, a world champion in 2001.
"Success breeds success," says Harnedy. "There were a lot of good lightweights around. We knew where we had to be. We were training with these people. We knew the standard where we had to be and it was quite obvious that we weren't at it - and how to get there."
The system moved up a notch earlier this year with the arrival in Ireland of Jahrling, a gold medallist in the coxed pair with East Germany in the Olympics of 1976 and 1980 and a proven coach in Australia. The German brought a new emphasis on technical matters.
"The first night he met us he said the Irish were probably the most well-trained rowers in the world. But technically we had been lacking," says Griffin.
Jahrling has the air of a schoolmaster, but the athletes do not seem cowed. The lightweight four's tactically naïve row in Munich, when they vainly chased France into a headwind only to be deprived of second on the line by Germany, brought an on-the-record expression of dissatisfaction, but in private the coach was "very supportive", says Griffin.
The crew which won in Lucerne looked an altogether more impressive unit, putting less emphasis on an explosive start and more on a controlled middle section.
"Lucerne was tactically very important for us," says Griffin. "We've proved that we can do that time and time again, even in training. We've developed our rhythm and pace. It was probably always there, except we're executing it better now."
Was it the best competitive row they ever had? Nods all around the table. "Without a doubt, yeah," says Griffin.
They realise the victory put pressure on them for Japan, but unlike many sports, in rowing one's opponent cannot physically affect one's performance.
"We just want to go as fast as we can from A to B. It's a very simple procedure," says Harnedy. "I know it's a cliché - but we can't change the opposition. It is very simple and there is no point in making it complicated."
Whatever the outcome of the World Championships, which have been delayed because of Typhoon Mawar, there will be no search for fall guys if things don't go well. Rowing now has "one of the best set-ups in Irish sport", says Griffin.
They talk of the attention to detail Jahrling has brought: for the three weeks of the recent camp in St Moritz they never had to wash gear, a small thing, but a huge boost during a spell of heavy training at altitude.
"We want for nothing," says Harnedy.
All that has to be done now is the job of getting from A to B faster than anyone else. Their most successful competitive outing so far, at Lucerne, was also the most enjoyable.
"From the day we arrived we tried to actually enjoy it," says Griffin. He nods towards Harnedy. "What was it you said the night before the final?"
The Skibbereen man takes it up. "I said: you train all year, you go through this hardship - if you wanted to be put in one place now it would be here, ready to race the final in Lucerne. No problems!"
All going well, the same crew will be on the start in Gifu in eight days' time, with the same attitude. Time to prove they are the best at what they do.
The row down:
RICHARD ARCHIBALD
Age: 27 Club: Queen's University Profession: Architect Rowing Career: 2005: World Cup regatta, Lucerne - Gold; World Cup regatta, Munich - Bronze. 2004: Olympic Games: Finalist (6th). 2003: World Championships - Finalist (6th); qualified boat for Olympics. 2002: World Championships - Won B Final (7th overall). 2000: World Under-23 regatta - Bronze. 1999: Commonwealth Games - Bronze (quadruple scull). Domestic honours include senior pair win (with Griffin) in 2005 and 2003.
EUGENE COAKLEY
Age: 26 Club: Skibbereen Profession: Civil Engineer Rowing Career: 2005: World Cup regatta, Lucerne - Gold; World Cup regatta, Munich - Bronze. 2004: Olympic Games: Finalist (6th). 2003: World Championships - Finalist (6th); qualified boat for Olympics. 2001: World Under-23 regatta - Silver. 2000: World Under-23 regatta - Bronze. 1997: World Junior Championships - Finalist (6th) in quadruple scull. Domestic highlights include lightweight single and open single in Nationals in 2003.
PAUL GRIFFIN
Age: 25 Club: Muckross Profession: Student Rowing Career: 2005: World Cup regatta, Lucerne - Gold; World Cup regatta, Munich - Bronze. 2004: Olympic Games: Finalist (6th). 2003: World Championships - Finalist (6th); qualified boat for Olympics. 2002: World Championships - Won B Final (7th overall). 2001: World Under-23 Championships - Silver. 2000: World Under-23 regatta - Bronze. Domestic honours include senior pairs title in 2005 and 2003 ( with Archibald) and 2000 (with Seán Casey).
TIM HARNEDY
Age: 23 Club: Skibbereen Profession: Student Rowing Career: 2005: World Cup regatta, Lucerne - Gold; World Cup regatta, Munich - Bronze. 2004: World Championships - Second in B Final (8th overall) in lightweight single scull. 2003: World Championships - Finalist (6th); qualified boat for Olympics. 2001: World Under-23 regatta - Silver. As a junior won two golds at Coupe de la Jeunesse. Domestic honours include lightweight single sculls title in 2005.
