Rowing chief targeting medals again after Euro dip

TARGETING MEDALS: Ireland's Zoe Hyde, Sanita Puspure and Alison Bergin preparing for the 2023 World Rowing Championships. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Antonio Maurogiovanni is confident that the crews he sends to September’s World Rowing Championships in Belgrade can get the team back on the podium after drawing a blank at the Europeans.

Ireland sent ten crews to the continental event in Slovenia two months ago but failed to claim a medal at the event for the first time since 2015. Two boats finished fourth in ‘A’ finals, three came fifth and another two sixth.

“The Europeans we knew would be a bit challenging this year because we had some injuries, the weather was not great,” said the high-performance director. “The other thing is that all these guys have a parallel career to build so university, working...

Maurogiovanni pointed to the likes of Paul O’Donovan who had been concentrating on medical studies since the Tokyo Olympics, Aifric Keogh who completed a Masters, and Eimear Lambe who had been juggling rowing with work as examples.

Athletes have been encouraged to develop what the Italian describes as their “parallel careers” in the wake of the delayed 2021 Games but the focus has now turned back in rowing’s favour with less than a year to go to the next Olympics.

There are more than 30 senior athletes training out of the National Rowing Centre in Ovens and only Sanita Puspure and Emily Hegarty are currently listed as injured. A small U23s team returned from their Europeans recently with three medals, one of them a gold.

The vibes are positive.

“We had to give them a little more space and now we are coming back into, let’s say, the positive routine and consistency in what they do. So we had crews in the (European) finals, U23s winning medals and hopefully we will follow that trend now.” 

Ireland had six boats at the last Olympics – and claimed two medals – and the upcoming Worlds in Serbia will be the best opportunity to qualify spots for Paris '24 with a second chance further down the line, in Lucerne, next summer.

“We always have something in mind," Maurogiovanni said of the Olympics numbers game. "It is my philosophy to stick with the process rather than the outcome so we will have, if all goes well, six or eight crews at the World Championships.

“In the last pre-Olympic year, in 2019, we qualified four (at the Worlds) so I would like to think about qualifying four (in Belgrade) and a couple the year after.”