Dubliner Walsh bids for glory in Boat Race

A DUBLINER will become sporting royalty across the Irish Sea today – whether he finishes in the winners’ circle or not.

Martin Walsh will become the first Irish rower to contest the 2010 Xchanging Boat Race in over 20 years – and just the 13th ever – when he sits in the number two seat for Oxford University today.

Around 250,000 people are set to line the banks of the River Thames to look on for the annual four-mile duel between Oxford and Cambridge, a showpiece of the English sporting calendar.

For former Belvedere College schoolboy Walsh, 24, finally making the grade to be selected as one of the eight in the Oxford ‘Blue Boat’ is the fulfilment of a long-standing dream.

Walsh – who began his rowing career with the Neptune rowing club at Islandbridge – stroked Isis, the Oxford reserve boat, to victory in last year’s race, and was also in the winning Isis boat in 2008.

However, he admits that he was hell-bent on earning a seat in the top race this term, having returned to Oxford and signed up for a Masters in Research in Orthopaedic Surgery.

“It is an honour for me to join such a select group,” said Walsh. “Having rowed in the last two reserve races, I’ve seen first-hand how special the event is. I can’t wait for race day to arrive.”

Walsh has undergone a punishing twice-daily, six-day-a-week training routine and bulked up significantly to make up for a natural size disadvantage, a reflection of his determined mindset.

“Once I decided to come back (to Oxford) it was the blue boat or it would have been a disaster for me in terms of what I had set my mind to. It was the blue boat or this year has been a waste. I would have really let myself down.”

The last Irishman to compete in the race was Paddy Mant, who rowed for Cambridge in 1989 and 1990, while the first was Richard Townsend in 1856.

Walsh, a keen Leinster rugby supporter, hopes to study medicine in Dublin next year, and harbours Olympic ambitions for London 2012.

But for now he is fully concentrating on narrowing Cambridge’s 79-75 overall lead since the race’s inception in 1829, and helping Oxford to a first three-in-a-row since the early 1990s.

- nThe 156th Boat Race from Putney to Morlake takes place at 4.30pm. Live coverage on BBC1 begins from 2pm.