‘We proved we are capable of competing at this level’ - Timoney
AN eighth place finish at the World Championships was a pleasing outcome for the Ireland Men’s Four crew, including local duo Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan, at the World Senior Championships in Racice, Czech Republic.
The crew just missed out on a spot in the A Final, coming home fourth in their heat and then in the B Final they were pipped into second place by eight hundredths of a second by Germany.
This was the crews first experience of elite senior level and Timoney was pleased with their overall performance.
“We’re definitely satisfied with the outcome, our goal was to prove we were capable of competing and the four of us can agree we accomplished that.
“If I could predict a position going into the championships I’d be only be speculating, I couldn’t, but a top 10 place was the goal on the top of our minds. Chatting the coaches postrace, they were buzzed with the overall outcome and I suppose if they are content then we are also.
“We were told their expectations only increased as the competition went on and you could sense the excitement. It wasn’t a case where they didn’t believe we could do it but more since we were a young Irish development crew racing the coxless fours event, one of the most competitive fields in rowing, so no one knew what was possible,” said Timoney.
In the semi-final, Ireland had started well and were on course for a final spot only for Switzerland to nudge them out at the end. Timoney feels that they learnt a lot of vital lessons from that race.
“Obviously there’s always going to be a little disappointment regarding the semi-final,” said Timoney. “I think we learnt some very strong lessons for future races in this one. We went in, as Ross would say, all guns blazing; the preparation and built-up hype within the team was crazy.
“The first half of the race was executed very well and honestly felt phenomenal so I suppose at this point we thought we were in control but to reverse our not so good second half of our previous race, we attacked the second half of the semi-final a little too hard and it left us hanging on in agony in the last 500m.
“There’s a fine line between attacking a race aggressively or attacking a race with controlled aggression and unfortunately the Swiss got a sniff of us falling back and once a crew thinks they can take you during a race, the adrenaline rush kicks in and 90 percent of the time they do.”
That left Ireland in the B final, and Timoney felt that this was their best performance.
“The B final race was probably the best race we have done, no doubt.
“It’s typical for every crew to race a B final with the urge to prove they deserve a place in the A final so no crew was going to get the win easy. The Polish were World Champions in 2019 in the same crew so it was surprising to see them there.
“For other crews, there was less pressure to perform and with no medal to lose, everyone tends to find another gear to go to. We expected everyone to pull something out of the bag here.
“As usual we had a good first half except this time we changed our race plan for the second half with a very definite technical focus.
“We were always on the line in terms of pain, but in the final our input of power was used more efficiently through being technically grounded and I suppose that’s the beauty of rowing.
“We held our ground, trusted our race plan, and like the Swiss with us in our semi-final, we got a sniff of moving back on the Polish and took the opportunity.
“It just so happened the Germans also shared the opportunity with us and we pretty much fought within inches of each other all the way to the finish line. A 2000m six minute race and the Germans just got us by eight hundredths of a second.
“We could wish for a better outcome but I don’t think we could wish for a better performance,” he said.
And Timoney is in doubt that this will give them belief moving forward that they can compete at this level.
“Definitely. It was our intention from the beginning for Irish Heavyweight rowing and I think we’ve helped accomplish that. We’ve still so much to improve on and I don’t think the commentators could stress enough how young we were but it just gives us all the more confidence for moving forward.
“A few coaches from other countries came over after our final to congratulate us on the performance which was unusual so it was an experience that only makes us crave for more racing at this level.
“Our Irish Women’s Four placed 10th at the World Championships in 2019 and went on to win a Bronze
Medal at the Olympics - it’s examples like this that give us confidence in ourselves and with a little belief, who knows where we’ll be in two years time.”
For now though it is back to university and the focus will soon turn to Olympic qualification.
“For me it’s back to University at Queen’s, I’ll take it easy for a few weeks then go back to the drawing board and plan my training for the year ahead.
“Next year is Olympic qualification year so eyes are firmly fixed on selection in the coxless four again. No seat is guaranteed and the selection process resets so it’s all to play for,” said Timoney.