Archibald focuses on Beijing
Thursday, 26 June 2008
A delighted Richard Archibald (right) and his Irish Light Weight Men’s Four crewmates Paul Griffin, Gearoid Towey and Cathal Moynihan celebrate with their silver medals after finishing second in their Final behind Germany in a time of 6:06.34 and qualify
COLERAINE'S Richard Archibald and his Irish team-mates have qualified for the Beijing Olympics by finishing second in the lightweight fours final in Poznan.
Archibald and the other members of his quartet came home behind Germany in their Olympic qualifier in Poland on Wednesday morning to secure their place along with the two other Coleraine oarsmen Alan Campbell (Great Britain Men's Sculls) and Richard Chambers (Great Britain Men's Light weight Fours) who had qualified last season. "This is a huge relief as it is what we have been aiming for and expecting. We are now focused on getting to the A final in Beijing in August and also winning a medal," said Archibald.
"We finished sixth last time so anything less than that would be a failure. I am really honoured to be going to the Olympics, and it is good that Richard (Chambers) and Alan (Campbell) will be going as well.
"We have had to up our displays after some poor performances last year and this is a major hurdle overcome. Our season, and possibly our careers, were over if we had not qualified and it was good to have a strong race in the final and be competitive against the Germans.
