Irelands men’s senior eight claimed a bronze medal at the World University Rowing Championships in Szeged in Hungary yesterday.

The men in green had come through the “back door” of the repechage to the final, but they were clearly up for it yesterday. While Britain were set for gold early, Estonia and Ireland pushed France into fourth and claimed the silver and bronze medals. Poland’s big crew could only finish fifth.

The Ireland eight is coached by Queen’s University coach Mark Fangen Hall and was formed from the Queen’s crew which won the Irish and British university championships with the co-option of UCD men, Dave Neale in the bow and Finbar Manning in the five seat. The full team consisted of Bow- David Neale UCD, 2- Jonathan Mitchell QUB, 3- Eoin MacDomhnaill QUB, 4- Colin Williamson QUB, 5- Finbar Manning UCD, 6- Abdulrahman Mohamed QUB, 7- Marc Butler QUB, Stroke- James Graham QUB and Cox – Andrew Tubman QUB.

It is the first time in 30 years that an Irish eight has taken a medal at a world final.  The event which brings together the world’s best student athletes is a key event in the world rowing calendar and acts as a building block to entering on to the senior world championship and Olympic level, with the Irish Beijing  heavyweight 4-  wining the same student event in 2006. Before Sundays A final the Irish boat was ranked 5^th but the new and inexperienced crew came home with the bronze medal behind Estonia in 2^nd and Great Britain in 1^st but ahead of France, Poland and Switzerland.  

Fangen Hall said he was “over the moon” and was full of praise for his crew. He said the extra race in the repechage was “kind of part of the plan”.“They didn’t row well in the heat. It was their first race together: mistakes were bound to be made and they were made. The rep gave them experience together.”

The race plan was completely changed for the final, with a big push just after halfway so that they would be in the reckoning come the crucial final two minutes.

“And if you couldn’t do it for your country for two minutes you don’t deserve to wear the green,” said Fangen Hall.

Two of the Queen’s men have previously rowed for Dublin clubs: Abdulrahman Mohamed represented Commercial, while Eoin Mac Domhnaill rowed for Dublin University (Trinity) Boat Club. Both have been studying at Queen’s University this season.

The rise of a new generation of Irish rowers has been marked in recent months. The men’s quadruple took silver at the World under-23 championships and there were three other top-10 placings. Single sculler Turlough Hughes took 10th at the World Junior Championships and Irish crews took three silvers at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, a European junior tournament.

Queen’s went out at the semi-final stage of the Temple Cup at Henley Royal Regatta and were pipped for victory by .13 of a second to an NUIG crew at the National Championships. However the UCD Sports Scholarship students, David Neale and Finbar Manning were members of the UCD team who claimed a prestigious victory at Henley this year.