Fermanagh’s Nathan Timoney put two years of injury woes behind him to secure his first World medal as part of the Irish Men’s Fours who claimed bronze at the U23 World Championships in Varese, Italy on Saturday.

The Irish crew came in behind winners Great Britain (06:03.04) and New Zealand (06:05.86) to clinch a superb bronze in a time of 06:09.10 ahead of Romania.

Speaking earlier this week, Timoney told The Impartial Reporter he was delighted with the result.

“The feeling is surreal,” he said. “We set out to medal and couldn’t have executed the race better than we did. Crossing the finish line was six hectic weeks of intense pre-race pressure lifted off our shoulders - a unique feeling. The aftermath of it all is second to none.”

Ireland had qualified for the final after finishing second in their repechage heat behind Italy and they tweaked their gameplan accordingly for Saturday’s race.

“How we would approach the final was the breaking point of whether we would medal or not,” explained Nathan.

“We tweaked our race plan based off our heat and repechage and knew if we wanted to medal, we would need to counteract a strong first half from the Italians and a rapid sprint from the Romanians.

“It was quite comical actually as we felt like we were planning a heist. The plan was to get ahead of the Italians by the half way mark and just keep moving. With 750m to go, in a medal position, we began to feel the effects of our stronger first half. The closer to the finish line we got, the more my recollection of the race fades away.

“I just remember making one last major crew call before the final sprint shouting ‘the Romanians are coming’ and we pushed away towards to the final sprint where we could only hang on with any sign of consciousness left.”

And for Nathan the success put a couple of difficult years to bed with the aim now to try and push on in the senior ranks.

“Each of us have our own story behind medalling and for me it’s a chapter closed coming out of a long dark place of injury where many don’t recover from.

“Going into Seniors it’s about building on what we have already achieved and hearing back from the New Zealand and Great Britain athletes post-race, we aren’t underdogs as such anymore as we hope to contribute to further Irish Rowing success in the future,” he said before adding: “Much of my thanks go to my family, coaches, Rowing Ireland, Queens, and of course where it all started at Enniskillen Royal Boat Club.”