Destination Tokyo
Ireland’s rowing world champion Monika Dukarska has a point to prove if she makes it to the 2020 Olympics
ROWING found itself fashionable for a brief spell this summer because of the easy charm of the O’Donovan brothers, our Olympic silver medallists. Their lighthearted manner suggested that the sport could be fun. Well, the good times kept rolling after the nation had stopped smiling with the west Cork brothers.
Yet, when Ireland got its latest rowing world champion at the end of October, it barely caused a ripple. Even by the exhausting standards of the sport, coastal rowing is a hard sell. An endurance event on the sea, it is only for the most tenacious in a sport where determination and dedication are almost everything.
A few weeks later, the Kerry town of Killorglin welcomed home its own world champion. Monika Dukarska had just blitzed the field in the women’s 6km race at the world coastal rowing championships in Monaco. She finished an extraordinary 26 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, Greece’s former Olympic bronze medallist Alexandra Tsiavou. Not only did the victory prove that the good times are continuing to roll for the sport in this country, it also underlined Dukarska’s potential.
On November 2 last, Dukarska celebrated another significant milestone as that was the 10th anniversary of her family’s resettling in Kerry. A tall Polish teenager, she arrived in her new home with almost no English. A decade later, she was world champion in a sport that she wasn’t even aware of when she first set foot in Ireland. Quite the journey.
‘If someone had told me when I arrived in Ireland, that I would be world rowing champion 10 years later... well, I wouldn’t have believed them. I never even set foot in a boat before I came to Ireland. And I didn’t know any English. Yeah, it has been quite a journey,’ says the affable 26year-old of her adventures this past decade.
There have been plenty of twists and turns. At the start of this year, she had hoped to be a team-mate of the O’Donovans in Rio.
She had been placed in a heavyweight pairs boat with Leonara Kennedy but, in February, she withdrew from Irish rowing’s high performance programme, frustrated by the lack of opportunities for heavyweight women.
However, climbing to the top of the world has re-energised her and it has helped her rediscover her passion for the sport. She can now see a clear path towards representing Ireland at Tokyo 2020 and as a world champion, she is likely to become a key element in how Rowing Ireland plans to capitalise on the O’Donovans’ success in Rio. Not bad for someone who knew nothing of the sport before being approached by a girl in her secondary school 10 years ago.
‘Basically, I only began rowing because someone came up to me in school, noticing I was quite tall and asking did I ever try it. I had no idea what the word even meant, and I didn’t know the sport either.
‘When we came from Poland, I was 16 and had no English, at all. I was thrown into the deep end. But I was keen to get involved in the local community, and I had to learn some English and thought joining a club would be the best way of doing this. So I met her after the school and went down to the rowing club.’
Within a couple of weeks, Dukarska didn’t feel lonely in a foreign country any more.
And it didn’t take long for the club to notice that she had some raw talent for the sport. Michael Fleming, the head coach in Killorglin, took her under his wing.
‘He was my mentor from the day I turned up at the club. He clearly saw something in me, whether it was just talent or my height, or maybe it was because I was determined to succeed. But from someone who was never in a boat, he produced an international rower.’
By 2009, she had won a world coastal rowing title in Plymouth. However, it didn’t mean as much back then as there wasn’t as many competitors.
‘I did win it once before, when it was in the UK, but it wasn’t as popular at the time and there wasn’t as many competitors. There was a lot more competition in Monaco.’
Still, her success in Plymouth made Irish rowing sit up and take notice. She wasn’t able to compete for Ireland until she secured an Irish passport. ‘And you had to be in the country for more than five years for that to happen,’ she recalls. ‘So, it took some time to get that.’
In October 2012, she finally got her passport with the harp. A few months later, she had raced internationally for Ireland at the World Cup regatta in Dorney Lake in the UK. She was part of a double sculls team. Having finished sixth, she got the green light to represent Ireland at the world rowing championships in South Korea later that year.
There was another top-10 finish at that event, and she was eyeing Rio as her first big explosion onto the global stage. But she felt that her ambition wasn’t being matched by others and this past February, she withdrew from the programme, dispirited and disillusioned.
As London Olympian Sanita Puspure had nailed down the place in the heavyweight singles category, Dukarska had to go to other avenues to reach Rio. She tried both a pairs boat and a fours boat. Neither worked out. A back injury at the time just compounded matters.
‘I had designs on going to Rio, but it wasn’t working out. And I was struggling with my back at the time, so I just took time out of the programme. Went back and finished my Masters.’
Now though, Tokyo 2020 looms on the horizon. As the latest star churned off Irish rowing’s conveyor belt, Monika Dukarska might be one of those who will ensure that the success of the O’Donovan brothers is only the start for this sport in Ireland.
I only began rowing because someone came up to me when I was at school...