Rowing stars Mags and Aoife are Echo Women In Sport award winners after securing Olympics qualification

The superb Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey are the September winners of the Echo Women In Sport award.

Mags and Aoife are being honoured because of their magnificent row at the World Rowing Championships, where they took a stunning victory in the B Final to secure Olympic qualification for Paris 2024.

Keen readers and sports fans will know that Mags and Aoife have won this award before; these Cork ladies have been at the top of their game for many years, and are wonderful role models for others looking to become athletes.

And this isn’t their first Olympic qualification either, they also qualified for Tokyo 2020, but did so at the final qualification regatta in Lucerne just months before the Games began.

But this time they worked their magic even earlier in the season, and secured qualification at the World Rowing Championships in Serbia last month. While for Tokyo 2020 they had little time between qualification and competing, securing Paris 2024 qualification so early gives them a fabulous run-in to the Olympic Games, and they can now focus solely on preparations.

Skibbereen’s Aoife, and Mags, from Rochestown, put on a stunning display of powerful rowing to take that top prize at the World Rowing Championships... qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

They didn’t have a great semi-final and so didn’t make it into the A Final to gain Olympic qualification, so they had one final chance in the B Final in Serbia. Also competing in that final were the Olympic champions, France, and there was only one Olympic qualification spot up for grabs.

If they were going to do it, they would have to beat the mighty French in what was going to be a lightweight women’s double sculls thriller.

And it was neck-and-neck throughout, with Ireland responding every time the French or the Polish applied the pressure. But things began to change from the half-way point, when the Irish double took off and showed what they are made of.

Ireland were leading from France coming towards the line when the French crew caught a crab (oar jam in water), and Ireland continued to power on and held off the challenging Poles to take the win and in doing so qualified Ireland’s lightweight women’s double scull for the Olympic Games in Paris.

Even if France hadn’t suffered that misfortune, it looked as thought the Irish ladies were going to do it either way.

There were huge cheers from the stands in Belgrade as the Cork ladies powered their way to a great victory.

Cue the celebrations on the water, in the stands, and in the rowing community watching the live stream.

An amazing performance from Mags and Aoife. Just stunning!

What it meant to them was easy to see on the water, as they embraced and congratulated each other. And as they rowed to the slipway the waiting press was there to capture the celebrations.

Speaking to The Echo after qualifying the lightweight double sculls for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Margaret said “it was great, a rollercoaster of a week, full of highs and lows”.

“We knew racing was going to be hard, but we were up for it, and excited to race,” she added.

“We had a good training camp in Spain (Banyoles) for three weeks, we love it there, and always head there pre Worlds, which sets up well for the last regatta.”

This group of Irish rowers have a really special bond, and this is built upon at these training camps.

And that was very evident when, after qualifying for the Olympic Games, Aoife and Mags could be seen shortly after in the stand with everybody else cheering on the Irish crews as they took on the world.

“Yes, we train with each other every day, the whole team, and we know the effort that everybody puts in, we know of any obstacles they are trying to overcome, and we are always there to support each other,” said Mags.

“We meet up together at meal times, we encourage each other, everybody is going after something so big. We’re looking to go faster, to win medals, chasing Olympic qualification, we know what each other is going through.

“We’re there for each other, to sit down and chat, when we lose and when we win.”

Going into the final Mags and Aoife knew they had one chance here to nail it. “We had a good feeling about it, we trusted each other to go out and do our very best, and if that wasn’t good enough then so be it, but we backed each other all the way.”

Lots of people from Lee Rowing Club (Margaret’s old club) made the trip over to watch them go for Olympic qualification, including Margaret’s junior coach while at Lee, Dan Buckley, and “it meant a lot that they came over to support us”, said Mags.

“My friend Maeve Heaney and her mum Cliona came out also, and Claire Sinnott and her mum and dad were over there as well. It’s great to have all them over there. Really, when we didn’t make it into the A Final it was hard to wrap our heads around it, but we met our family and friends after that race and they all were so supportive, helped us to keep the heads, telling us we had another chance on Saturday (in the B Final), and keeping us positive.

Going into that final race, there were huge cheers from the Irish fans watching on, and great support online also watching the live stream.

And how they nailed it, beating the French and the Polish, to take Olympic qualification.

The emotion was there for all to see as they leapt from their boat and ran to embrace their family after securing Olympic qualification. There waiting to embrace them was Margaret’s dad Declan and his girlfriend Marcella, and Aoife’s mum Eleanor.

“It was great to have them there, and great to have the support of us all, everyone was cheering for everyone else, and those from other countries were saying the Irish are out in force,” added a delighted Mags.

“We’re happy with our Olympic qualification but we’re going to leave no stone unturned now, it’s back to training, ready and hungry to take on the challenge that lies ahead.”

This weekend they’re off to Paris to row on the Olympic course, to get to know it, to learn its behaviour, and to prepare for one last big Olympics in the lightweight double.

The bad news for a dominant Ireland is that the lightweight double is being removed from the Olympic programme after Paris 2024, so Mags and Aoife are determined to “savour the next 10 months, and the everyday slog”.

It’s also bad news for reigning Olympic and World champions, Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, who have dominated for years in the lightweight double scull.

Speaking of them, Mags says “it’s great to have Paul and Fintan as training partners, and friends.

They are an inspiration, the best in the world consistently, and we have learned a lot from them, and from our coach Dominic Casey as well.”

“He coaches us all, and is always thinking of new ways and new ideas to be better, always excited for us to take a step forward, and really passionate about making the gains.”

Speaking about winning the Echo Women In Sport award for September, Mags said it was a “great honour” for them both.

“The Echo has always been there reporting on rowing down through the years. It’s a popular sport now, but it wasn’t years back, and yet the Echo was always there back then supporting rowing with great coverage,” said Mags. “We have great clippings from the newspaper reports, and Teresita O’Callaghan of Lee Rowing Club is always sending us on clippings, even now, when any of us appear in The Echo.”

Now that Olympic qualification has been secured, the focus is firmly on making little improvements that will make such a big difference when margins between international crews are so small, and Mags and Aoife are firmly focused on winning a medal for Ireland at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“We’re happy that we’ll be able to show our true colours next year in Paris.”

Bring on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games... Allez les Verts!