The Team Ireland Zoom interview featuring Aifric Keogh and Philip Doyle bounces back and forwards between them, which is fitting.
Doyle's boat, the men's double scull in which he partners with Ronan Byrne, has been qualified for Tokyo since the World Championships in 2019 where they took a silver medal. Keogh only nailed down her spot with the women's four in May. But the two credit much of the progress they have made to the fierce competition in training between their boats, alongside the other ambitious crews in a team of six Ireland boats going to Tokyo.
The Ireland heavyweight crews are based in Varese in Italy as they prepare for Tokyo, and the crews, including the women's four, the double, and Sanita Puspure, the world champion in the single sculls, have been fighting it out in test races, handicapped to allow for their likely times. The under-23 men's four, which has its own World Championships last weekend, was also part of the picture.
Doyle says it has seemed a long wait from the time of qualifying at the World Championships in Linz in 2019 to finally be within weeks of the Olympic Games.
"To be honest, over the past few weeks seeing so many athletes qualifying, you sort of feel like you're missing out - you haven't had your big buzz.
"It was a great feeling at the time. But it was back in 2019. It is so long ago now, nearly two years.
"That feeling when you qualify is so special."
He says he admires others who had to wait to land their place.
Keogh only knew for certain she could plan for Tokyo when the four won their place at the qualifier in Lucerne in May.
"Obviously, it's been a very, very different story for us. We fell just short in 2019 when the likes of Philip and Ronan did qualify. We spent the whole 2019-2020 winter season training for qualification.
"When it all got put off for another year it seemed like it was never going to happen for us.
"I think in one way it has been a blessing for us, because we just haven't been able to take our foot off the gas. This whole time we've all been in the unknown - not knowing what's going on - our main focus was 'a qualification race will come about for us and we have to make sure we're ready when that opportunity does come.'
"It was mid-May when we managed to qualify the women's four [Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty] in Lucerne. We already had [an Ireland] women's pair qualified from Linz [Aileen Crowley and Monika Dukarska]. For us it was just about getting those four extra seats on the plane for the women's sweep team, getting the whole six of us going. It's been the goal the whole time."
This season, the new crew has already staked its claim to be amongst the contenders for medals in Tokyo by taking silver at the European Championships, and Keogh believes it is a quicker crew than two years ago.
"Yeah, I do believe we are much faster. We still have to race a few countries we haven't seen since 2019 - the likes of the United States and Australia. We've only raced the European teams, plus China (who travelled to the Olympic qualifier). So, we still have a few teams to test our speed against.
"But we've come up against some of the World Championships medallists from 2019 and we've done quite well against them, so we are quite hopeful that this boat is definitely faster [than the 2019 crew]."
The men's double of Ronan Byrne and Doyle have had a mixed 2021. They reformed and made it through the spring trials after a year in which Doyle, a doctor, had fought Covid on the frontlines.
Their European Championships were a disappointment, however, as they finished seventh. The silver medal at the World Cup in Lucerne was encouraging, but while they have been training well they head for Tokyo with some questions to be answered.
Doyle is hopeful.
"Myself and Ronan are a very individual partnership. It takes a while for us to click. For the Europeans, we just didn't have that click that we were so used to, because of the time apart.
"The same thing happened in 2019 when we came 10th in the Europeans and then we went on to be second again at the World Cup.
"You can see [it] now in our attitude towards the training.
"Aifric was saying they are a faster boat than in 2019. We know that because we do times in training and we work off percentages of our [projected] gold medal time against each other.
"We are not beating the girls very often and they are making it a lot harder to get past them these days. They are a much, much faster four than they were.
"[But] I think myself and Ronan are covering that gap a lot better. We're starting to perform a bit more consistently."
"We could see that coming into [the World Cup in] Lucerne, where we got a silver medal. We could see the momentum building in the boat, we could see [that] the drive, the click was starting to come. There were the few moments of magic there in a few of the pieces. It came and went, but it came more than it went.
"Over the past few weeks [in their training camp in Varese in Italy] we've been looking to feel that out again, trying to search for that feeling as a partnership. It's been coming together quite nicely. We can always do more, and we are searching and striving for a bit more speed, because we know every country is going to step it up."
The races between the crews give Doyle hope that their form is improving. "We're happy but not satisfied, as a famous coach once said," he concludes.
For Keogh, the competition within the camp is also encouraging.
"We have so many top boats in our team at the moment. As Phil says, if you know you're beating - or close to - Sanita, Paul and Fintan [the lightweight double], Philip and Ronan, then you know you are within a shout of doing well.
"Obviously, everyone has off days, but what we're looking for, all of us, is to consistently be that top boat or the second boat in the training sessions every week.
"We're all so competitive when the times come out!"
She says that the top ranking can alternate.
"It's great to have such a big team around us. To be honest, I don't know would we all have the speed we have without each other."
So, what would success be in Tokyo?
"I suppose we're all there to - hopefully - win a medal," Keogh says. "The team is going so well that if one boat wins a medal I see no reason why we all can't! We're all so competitive, so close percentage-wise. That's what everyone's ambition and dream is at the moment."
Doyle concurs. Every athlete at the Olympics has the drive to succeed.
"If I see Aifric winning a medal on one day I'm not going to rest until I get a medal the next day. One boat drives the next, which drives the next, drives the next."
He says the double sculls has a collection of six to eight good crews which could make the podium; with their best race Ireland can be there.
"A medal would be the ideal. But we want to learn and enjoy the experience. And come away with something we are happy with.
"At this point a medal is what we would be happy with. That's what we are working towards."
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|
row2k's Olympics coverage is brought to you by:
row2k's Olympics coverage is brought to you by: