McKinley thrilled with European success

BY MATTHEW WILSON

ADAM McKinley achieved a huge feat last month by returning home from the European Universities Rowing Championships with a bronze medal.

The Letterkenny native travelled to Poland in September to compete in the event where he took to the boat in the Lightweight Men’s Double Skulls.

Finishing in a time of 3:16.01, they secured third position behind winners Andre Ferreira and Telmo Silva from the University of Aveiro in Portugal and Poznan University of Technology pair Dmytro Kulyk and Jakub Nierzwicki in second.

It was an accomplishment that Adam McKinley said didn’t think he’d manage when heading over to the Championships in Bydgoscz.

“It was massive, when I started I didn’t think I’d get that far to be honest. It’s quite big to be able to say that I’ve raced internationally and brought home some silverware.”

McKinley was partnered in the boat by Benedict Weis in the Lightweight Men’s Double Skulls in Bydgoscz over the one kilometre distance.

This is the pair’s second year working competing together and after coming out on top in the BUCS Regatta, they decided to take the next step to the European Universities Championships.

“That’s our second year running now doing that double. We came third last year in the Champs doubles at BUCS Regatta and it was only when we won it this year that we decided to take the next step and head on to the European University Championship.”

In an event like this chemistry and co-ordination is key, with both rowers needing to stroke the oars in a synchronised fashion in order to get the most out of themselves.

McKinley and Weis appear to have this in abundance and ousted possibly stronger opponents to the podium spot due to the understanding that they have between one another.

“We’ve spent a good bit of time together and we work quite well together. We’re pretty much rowing the exact same and that’s really how you make it go quick, you have to be in tune with your partner.

“Compared to some of the other boys in there, we may not have been as strong but we more than made up for it in chemistry and that’s what allowed us to take home what we did.”

The Queen’s University duo concluded their heat in a time of 3:25.08 and managed to cut over nine seconds off this time to finish on the podium in Poland.

The Letterkenny man expressed that having watched the other competitors race after them, they knew that they needed to shave a few seconds off their time and they managed to do just that.

“We knew when we watched the other race that the times they were doing were a good bit quicker than what we did in our heat.

“We had a day between the heat and the final where we practiced our starts, we knew that was where we lost most of our time and we were able to take off a good eight or nine seconds on the day.

“I think the conditions were worse on the first day but we made up a good bit of time beyond that. We showed a bit more grit to take home the medal because it was close in the end.”

McKinley is currently doing work placement as part of his aerospace engineering degree at the Belfast University.

Having only taken up the sport as a novice at third-level, it makes the Donegal man’s accomplishment even more commendable.

It’’s a sport which requires a great deal of commitment and dedication and between studies and work, it could prove difficult for some to manage.

However, McKinley is working hard both on and off the water in order to get the results that he’s producing,

“They’re doing 11 sessions a week at the moment, it’s not easy. Each individual session on its own may not be hard but it’s doing it every day; however, that’s the sport.”

“Everyone is at that, it’s being able to stick with it and work hard every session that helps to give you the results.”

The training continues for the Queen’s University student in coming weeks and months as they prepare for the upcoming British Indoors Rowing Championships in Birmingham this December while also competing in a couple of local events closer to base.

“We’re looking at the British University Indoors, that’s the next University level event but we’ll be doing plenty of head races on our own river like Queen Head and Lagan Head.”

“I’m looking forward to next year to do BUCS Head and BUCS Regatta and hopefully we can take home a good few medals in those again and repeat success because repeating success is the hard thing.”