World Cup 2, which is the second of three world cup regattas, took place on Lake Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland. For three days, the worlds rowing community would turn its attention to the Rotsee (better known to rowers as the Lake of Gods) for an intense, captivating weekend’s racing.
Brian Colsh, who is registered with University of Galway boat club, was paired up with Andrew Sheehan of UCC rowing club to race the men’s double scull. Colsh and Sheehan are no stranger to rowing together as they were both in the coxless quad that medalled at Junior Europeans in 2020, proving there is good pedigree in the boat.
The weekend’s racing kicked off on Friday at 10:12 with Colsh and Sheehan, both of whom are only 21 years of age, pulling away from the stakeboats in lane 4. The calibre of athletes in this heat was second to none, with current world gold medalists Spain in lane 1, and Italian Olympians in lane 3. Colsh and Sheehan stuck to the race plan, but at the 1k mark, there was 6 seconds between the Irish and the Italians. Sheehan made the call to Colsh to push on and they closed the gap by 5 seconds. However, it wasn’t quite enough to get a place in the A final and they were forced to race the repechage the following day.
Saturday morning saw Colsh and Sheehan contest the repechage. Meanwhile back home in Sligo, many junior rowers and coaches crowded around a phone to watch the livestream and witness one of their own setting the standard of Irish rowing. Back in Lucerne, the French and Italian world medalists took the lead early on, leaving New Zealand, Norway, and Ireland battling it out for the other two spots in the A final. The Irish put on a sprint for the line with 500 to go and forced the New Zealanders and Norwegians to up the pace. Coming into the final 250 there was less than a second separating the Ireland and Norway teams, but the line came too soon for the Irish and Norway gained the last spot into the A final. However, the Irish boat was moving well and was only getting faster as the regatta went on.
Sunday played host to the final day of World Cup 2 and the B final of the men’s double was a head-to-head showdown between the Irish and the Cubans. Both crews are U23 and had some close racing over the past few days. The first 500 saw the Irish trailing slightly but as they transitioned to their mid race rhythm the boat began to run smoothly and they cruised past the Cubans to win the B final by a length. This was to the delight of Irish supports who travelled to Lucerne, including Brian’s parents Tommy and Rosaleen Colsh. These will no doubt be two crews to watch out for at the upcoming U23 world championships in August.
President of Rowing Ireland, Neville Maxwell, congratulated Brian and Andrew on a great weekends racing, “Great to see our U23 group getting so much exposure to senior racing. Paris -> LA pathway”.
Sligo RC would like to wish Brian continued success as he continues his rowing journey and look forward to seeing him back on the Garavogue in the near future.