Other Sports

A historic day as three Kerrymen row in the Olympics for Ireland


by Weeshie Fogarty

 Harald Jahrling has been in the sport of rowing for nearly forty years and is a double Olympic Gold medal winner with his country the Soviet Union as it was then. 1976 in Montreal and 1980 in Moscow were the glory years for this powerfully built six foot plus German.  He has been in coaching since his career finished and has worked in Germany and Australia and is now finishing his term as coach to the Irish Rowing Association. His observations on the rowing organization in Ireland however make it quite clear that it leaves a lot to be desired and he pulled no punches when I caught up with him lately and quizzes him on this subject. "The set up here is not great and generally the sport set up in Ireland is not great. Our performances are not as good as it should be. The sports structure in the country generally needs an over haul and needs some long term thinking, long term ideas and needs to be much more united in its approach to helping the athletes and supporting the high performances structures. Rowing is not the very united front that goes out there to make the best happen for the sport and the individuals in the sport. There is a lot of work to be done still".

Is there any reason why our three great Kerry oarsmen, Sean Casey, Paul Griffin and Cathal Moynihan can not participate in the London Olympics in three years time? His answer was firm and decisive. "There is no reason at all, no. They are all young enough and more importantly good enough. If the determination and the will is still there, the right attitude and the support system to give them that edge then surly they can compete". So what were these three Olympians like as individuals? "They are very determined people. In sport it is not to take the road that is traveled by everybody, it's the road that is less traveled that you take and you take the hard option. Those three boys are the people who take that road". He made it very clear that our county should be very proud of these three young men. "They are role models and you should be enormously proud of them and everyone should look up to them. If they do decide to go on for another four years then everyone should give their full support as they endeavor to achieve their dreams in London". He was scratching in his remarks as to the help our oarsmen and women get from the two sporting bodies responsible for their welfare. "The Irish Amateur Rowing Union is the governing body of the sport and they as an organization have to make changes. Also the Irish Sports Council above them are the delivery agent in sport in Ireland and they have to look at themselves too. They will have to make decisions that are hard but they need to be supportive to the sports in the country. They must look at the over all picture and not just boxing". So strong words from the man who is departing the Irish rowing scene and reading between the lines it is very evident that there is something fundamentally wrong behind the scenes in the two organizations referred to. And I hasten to add Harald Jahrling choose his words very carefully as I interviewed him. The losers at the end of the day as always, the participants, the Irish oars men and women.

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