After a 36-year wait for a gold medal, Northern Ireland secured its third in less than 24 hours when rowing hero Hannah Scott and her Team GB crewmates clinched a dramatic victory in the quadruple sculls.
Scott’s golden moment in Paris came the day after Northern Ireland swimmers Daniel Wiffen and Jack McMillan won their own gold medals at the Olympic pool.
The sudden gold rush for the region is all the more remarkable given the last time Northern Ireland topped an Olympic podium was in Seoul in 1988 when Stephen Martin and Jimmy Kirkwood earned gold as part of the winning Team GB hockey team.
The wait for an individual gold has been even longer, with Wiffen the first solo gold medallist from Northern Ireland since Mary Peters triumphed for GB in the pentathlon at Munich in 1972.
There was a 54-strong group of supporters out in Paris to cheer on Coleraine rower Scott as the GB crew snatched a dramatic win after reeling in the Dutch with the final stroke of the race.
The group comprised of family, members of Scott’s old rowing club in Coleraine, former coaches, school friends and friends from her university days at Princeton in the US.
Her mother Sharon said they were all in awe of what she had achieved.
“It was just fabulous to see her coming across the line,” she told the PA news agency from Paris.
“Feeling really proud we’re all really happy, there’s about 50 of us here.”
Her mother added: “So there’s going to be a bit of a party tonight.
“There’s been a lot of whiskey drank at the minute. A lot of Bushmills whiskey.”
On the atmosphere when Scott won, she said: “It was absolutely fabulous. It just erupted.
“So I think it was hearts in our mouth, everybody was really quiet when she was racing up and then really it just went crazy from there on end. To see her get presented with her medal by Princess Anne was so so amazing for us as parents and family and friends.”
Scott was able to speak to her family after the race.
“She came to us, she was delivered by the local police. They brought her, sirens wailing, to meet up with us,” said her mum.
“She’s really happy because that, for her, is the culmination of three years’ work from Tokyo and she’s been rowing since she was 13 so it’s just the job done.”
Back in Northern Ireland hundreds gathered on Wednesday morning at a specially erected big screen in the centre of Coleraine to watch the nail-biting final.
The crowd erupted when the photo finish was confirmed as a win for 25-year-old Scott and her Team GB crewmates Lauren Henry, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw.
Members of Bann Rowing Club, where Scott began her journey to Olympic stardom, were prominent among those celebrating amid jubilant scenes in front of the Town Hall.
Three young club members hoping to one day emulate Scott’s feat were 15-year-olds Hannah Nicholl, Lydia Quigley and Erin McAleer.
“It’s really inspiring, it’s pushed us to want to accomplish the same thing that she did,” said Hannah.
“Obviously it gets really hard now as we get older, but she did it, so so can we, coming from a little club in Coleraine.”
Lydia described Scott as a great role model.
“We are so proud of her with all she has accomplished and it’s definitely something we would like to look forward to in the future,” she said.
Erin said the atmosphere at the big screen event was unbelievable.
“It was just unreal to see a girl that was at the same club as us go so far, it’s just so inspiring to watch, it’s just unreal,” she said.
A group of dedicated Scott supporters wore T-shirts with the rower’s face on the front, surrounded by the good luck message ‘Gwan ya girl ye’.
Two of them were Clodagh De Jode and Julie Smyth.
“My goodness, that was the most unbelievably gripping thing I have ever seen,” said Ms Smyth.
“Hannah is just a fantastic girl, a great rower. We all know Mal and Sharon (her parents) and the whole family and it’s just wonderful to see their dreams coming true like this.”
Ms Smyth said it was a proud day for the whole town and the wider region.
“In this Olympics, Ulster has had some amazing athletes and we have been doing really well – definitely punching above our weight I think.”
Ms De Jode described the race finish as “amazing”.
“Hannah is a proud representative of Bann Rowing Club and everyone who knows her or knows her parents is just delighted for the whole family,” she said.
“It was just amazing, it could not have been closer, a tenth of a second, oh my goodness, they were really trying to give us all a heart attack.”
Local MP Gregory Campbell was also among those who gathered to watch the thrilling climax to the race.
“What a finish, I was sunk – not to use a pun – I thought we had to settle for silver 50 yards out,” he said.
“Twenty five yards out I thought we are silver here, and then they pulled it off at the very, very last minute by fifteen hundredths of a second – what an incredible performance.”
Mr Campbell expressed hope the golden treble for Northern Ireland would inspire the next generation to dream big.
“It’s been a fantastic performance, whether it’s Team GB or Team Ireland, whether it is singles or a team, it’s a fantastic performance,” he said.
“It lifts everybody and hopefully people will take heart from that, and hopefully young people will take heart from it to get involved in sport and see what they can do.
“What they have seen on the screen today, it could be them in four years’ time.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the parents of gold medal swimmer Wiffen spoke of their pride at his history-making win at the Olympics.
Team Ireland’s Wiffen, who grew up in the village of Magheralin, near Lurgan, Co Armagh, triumphed in the men’s 800 metres freestyle final in Paris on Tuesday evening, setting a new Olympic record in the process.
Only an hour after Wiffen’s success another Northern Ireland swimmer secured a gold medal.
While Jack McMillan did not participate in the Olympic 4x200m freestyle final that was won by Team GB swimmers Matt Richards, James Guy, Tom Dean and Duncan Scott , the 24-year-old from Co Down still secured a medal having swum for the team in the qualifying heats.
Wiffen, 23, is Ireland’s first ever male swimming gold medallist.
His parents, Rachel and Jonathan, were in the La Defense Arena to witness the thrilling win.
Other family members, including Wiffen’s twin brother Nathan – a talented swimmer in his own right – were also there.
Nathan and Daniel’s love of the water started when they were just three months old when their parents took them along to Water Babies classes.
“It was just electric,” mother Rachel told BBC Radio Ulster.
“We were very, very high up, so we were way away from the pool, and I had a bit of a wobble at 400 metres, and I was thinking this isn’t going how I thought it was going to go.
“And then that last 50m it was just amazing. Just he did everything he was going to do. It was just brilliant.”
His father Jonathan said: “Stroke after stroke, we were watching him, we’re watching the board, we’re watching the time, we’re watching each other. We’re sort of saying how are the others doing?”
He added: “By the last 150 metres, we were all on our feet. All the people around us were cheering Daniel on and shouting for him in the stadium. It was absolutely amazing.”
Meanwhile, McMillan’s brother Leo said the fact he did not get his medal on the podium did not take away from his amazing performance in the heat.
“He really didn’t have any nerves and neither did I going into it, I just have full confidence in him,” he told Radio Ulster.
“I thought he was going to do really well and he did. We were absolutely ecstatic last night and even this morning. I’m just so proud of him. Obviously, it would have been nice to see him stand on the podium, but the performance itself in the heat was amazing. And he really did put on a show.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0