WE WANT THE WORLD
O’Donovan brothers set out ambition to rule the waves
FINDING the National Rowing Centre is tricky. The N22 out of Cork city carries you through Ovens and Farran, and the road tightens as you approach Farran Woods. An unobtrusive turn off to the right takes you in under a thick embrace of trees and the entrance to one of the most successful sports facilities in Ireland.
A morning spent there in June did not convince the visitor that medals were a certainty in Rio. What was apparent, though, were the steepling standards under which the O’Donovans, Sanita Puspure, Sinéad Jennings and Claire Lambe prepared for the Olympics.
High performance director Morten Espersen watched on as coach Don McLachlan worked with Puspure and advised the women’s doubles. The O’Donovans ploughed through their own session, and after a couple of hours on the water everyone went back to the centre for breakfast.
The relationship between the groups was interesting. Jennings and Lambe shared a quiet, almost shy intensity. Puspure was candid. And the O’Donovans were contrasts: Paul was mostly silent, Gary jabbered and jigged. The women tended to settle for laughs as the brothers interacted.
A collegiate feeling was obviously discernible, too. High standards applied here. When they had finished eating, every athlete brought their bowl back to the kitchen area. It’s not a major detail, but it still registered at the time.
This was a small group. They prepared in a sophisticated manner and followed programmes that observed the highest coaching methods, but they did not operate in a detached or indulged sphere.
Coaches from all over Ireland will spill out of different sports and converge on Farran Woods now. The secrets of Ireland’s rowing success must be discovered. And it has shown itself to be a tremendous system, not just with a silver medal but also the class shown by Jennings and Lambe in driving an Irish women’s boat into an Olympic final for the first time.
As with the secrets of every sporting success, there is no secret at all. The O’Donovans’ story is one that tells of years of hard work, love, and the appliance of the necessary science.
‘They are fantastic racers and they can step up at all times whether it’s a heat or a semi-final,’ says Espersen, a 65-year-old Dane whose appointment was considered a coup for Rowing Ireland at the start of this Olympic cycle, in October 2012. ‘They never look back and they just go for it. That’s something special.
‘Yes, very strong minded,’ he smiled, when asked about their obduracy. ‘Very nice people but they have a very strong mentality towards racing and I think that’s probably coming from the environment, from Skibbereen where they are trained, so that’s fantastic.’
Skibbereen is vital to their story. They are from Lisheen, a village less than 10 kilometres from Skibbereen Rowing Club. They started going there when they were kids, Paul seven and Gary just eight, brought along by their father Teddy.
Rowing obsessed him and that love flooded the DNA of his boys.
‘He took us down to the rowing club one day and they had this big cox training double (a type of boat) and there was only the three of us out there, and myself and Gary were only small boyeens at the time,’ remembers Paul.
‘We had no strength, so he was dragging this big boat down himself and threw it in the water. We thought we were the bee’s knees anyway going out. I’d say we were awful but we loved it and we just kept going.
‘And then we got our two friends then, Shane and Diarmuid O’Driscoll (involved), they’re not related but are very close neighbours of ours and it took off then. We just kept going for years and we made it to here now.’
The line from there to here ran reasonably straight but it jerked, occasionally. The man who coached them to Olympic silver was Dominic Casey, an important figure in Skibbereen Rowing Club and the man who has coached them all their lives. At one point, he threatened to suspend them from the club to smarten them up.
Richard Coakley rowed for Ireland at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He is a Skibbereen club man and spoke to the Southern Star newspaper in west Cork about the work of Casey.
‘His main strength is his passion for rowing and his belief that any one of us can be the best in the world if we want it hard enough,’ said Coakley. ‘Dominic has set up a great rowing culture in the club and all the new rowers buy into this culture of hard work and commitment.’
Morten Espersen foresees bigger success for the O’Donovans. Their tomfoolery is a game, one that has entertained the country and diverted them. They know when to stop, though. That visit in June included a boat trip to watch the crews train.
The brothers would light up and start joking as soon as we drew near, but from a distance you could see the grimaces on their faces as they worked and worked.
‘They’re a special bunch and I think they can achieve even more. In Tokyo they can go for the gold medal,’ says Espersen.
Gary O’Donovan will be 27 then, his brother not long turned 26. Rowing is a sport where the best keep improving into their 30s as years of training build strength and, crucially, endurance.
‘Coming from 11th last year (at the world championships: the first 11 boats qualified, securing their place in Rio), a lot of people just said, “Do you know, it will just be a great experience for them”,’ says Paul.
‘But we never looked upon it that way. We always came here with the intention of trying to win the thing. I know we’ve got the silver medal now and that will be great experience for us going forward for the next one now in Tokyo.’
They have studies to finish first, Paul with his final year of physiotherapy in UCD to do once he returns from the world championships at the end of this month, Gary starting a Master’s in Cork Institute of Technology in September.
But these boys don’t want to postpone their plans for world domination. Impatience has worked for them so far.
‘I still think they need a little more experience. I know they’re over the moon and that’s fine and that’s great. But I think they’ll be a real hot shot in the future,’ says Espersen.
‘We’ve had great craic doing the rowing,’ reflects Paul, ‘we haven’t really missed out on too much.’
They have gained more than any Irish rower ever did. They have become sudden national heroes after 15 years of effort.
They are special. They can achieve even more in Tokyo, they can go for gold