Galway is celebrating the success of two rowers who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh are the toast of the county after finishing first in the women's four final in Lucerne - the last qualifying regatta for this year's Olympic Games.
Along with Emily Hegarty and Eimear Lambe, the Irish crew won this crucial race to take the first of two available slots for the Olympics, beating crews from China, Italy, Russia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.
Having grabbed silver at Varesse last month, the four were in top form heading into this final regatta, knowing their Olympic dream was on the line. And they delivered. Winning their heat, they qualified directly to the final on Sunday morning in Switzerland, and again, dominating the event, they finished first in 06:31.99.
The women are now one of six boats which have qualified for this year's Olympics under Irish Rowing's high performance director Antonio Maurogiovanni.
The Galway women follow in the footsteps of Neville Maxwell who competed in 1996 and 2000, and Cormac Folan (Barna ) and Alan Martin (Salthill ) who, along with fellow NUIG student James Wall of Limerick, qualified for the Beijing Olympics.
Both women were understandably "relieved" to have secured their Olympic dream after what has been a tough journey since 2019.
"It has been such a long project, and so much work has gone into it over the past year," says Murtagh, who hails from Moycullen, while Keogh, who set records on the Erg during lockdown at her home in Furbo, is delighted to have finally been able to show the crew's prowess since Covid had put a halt to competition.
"We have been waiting for a chance since everything got cancelled in 2019 just to go out and show everyone how hard we have been working and how much speed we have gained. While the rest of the world may have been shocked, we knew all along that we had it in us.
"It was such a massive relief to get down the track in one piece, because you always worry if something will go wrong, but the race went off without anything going wrong and that was the biggest relief."
Former double Olympian Neville Maxwell, believes the women now have a real chance to qualify for an Olympic final.
"This is our biggest team ever to have qualified from all corners of the country which is important, and not going there to make up the numbers," he says. "The crews have a really good chance of making finals and being competitive for medals. It is a massive achievement and inspiring for everyone."
