A sixth place finish in the men’s pair at the World Cup in Lucerne could be “the beginning of something special” according to the local rowers Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan.

The Fermanagh pair went into the latest World Cup event as a relatively unknown quantity having only teamed up in the coxless pairs a matter of weeks ahead of the high profile competition, but they surpassed even their own expectations by making the A final.

“Our dream target for the World Cup was to make it to the A final,” admitted Timoney. “If we could achieve this, we knew it could be the beginning of something special considering we had hopped in the pair three weeks prior.

‘Passed the test’

“I think in some ways we exceeded our realistic expectations. We have still yet to find out if the High Performance Board decide to continue with the project in the pair, but I think it’s evident we have passed the test in Lucerne.

“The World Championships are two months away and our performance over the weekend shows that the potential to qualify for the Olympics is there, but also shows we have so much we can improve on over the next few months. With the year it’s been, we are very, very close to reaching the dream of qualification.”

The local pair started their World Cup campaign in the same heat as 2022 World Championship silver medallists Spain, and they surprised even themselves by finishing ahead of the Spanish pair as they eased into the quarter finals.

“With all honesty, we finished the heat thinking we did not do our best race as our steering was a little off track and we also struggled to find a good rhythm that we had in training,” admitted Timoney.

‘Shocked’

“Our coach then told us we had the fastest time within the first three heats. To be honest we were shocked by this, but then became very excited with confidence in ourselves for the quarter finals.”

The pair then emerged victorious from their quarter final, leading from start to finish to put themselves within touching distance of the A final.

“We could sense the nerves starting to build and the pressure really becoming obvious for us,” Nathan revealed, as he recalled the build-up to the semi-finals.

“For the first time in a very long time we knew we had the chance to qualify a men’s heavyweight pair for an A final at this level.

“We came second behind the Swiss who were European champions this year and although they took the win, we both had a celebration of our own knowing we had achieved what we set out to do and what we knew would be a big challenge going into the competition.”

The pair were up against the best rowers in the world in the A final, but they approached the last race with the same attitude as the preceding rounds, racing into an early lead after 500 metres before eventually tailing off to finish sixth.

“Our first 500m of any race is our strong point at the moment and we were very consistent with this throughout the event so we didn’t necessarily have an intention to go out fast, it just happened naturally for us,” Nathan explained.

Poorest performance

“Of all four races, we came to the conclusion that our final race was probably our poorest performance, although still a solid one. Going into the second half of the race we hit a few buoys but mostly found it difficult to find a rhythm and settled for our position in the end.

“The positive outcome of all of this is we both know the feeling we are looking for, it’s a feeling that gives us efficient and consistent speed in the boat and it’s something that will definitely come with more time together.”