Athlone celebrates success of rowing star with strong local links
By David Flynn
A member of a Tormey Villas family was celebrated last Sunday when he turned up in the terrace to see bunting flags and greetings for his winning of a bronze medal in the World Rowing Championships the previous week in St Catharines, a city in Ontario, Canada.
Brian Colsh, grandson of long-time Tormey Villas residents, Tom and Alice Colsh, had rowed with his crew partner, Adam Murphy in the U23 Men’s Heavyweight Double Sculls ‘A’ final in Canada.
Sligo native Brian and Adam from Cork were No. 5 in the six-crew race and were a strong third throughout the 2000-metre race, following closely behind the Polish and Australian crews. They maintained their pace throughout, beating Croatia, Italy and Lithuania.
It was Ireland’s first medal of the championship, and Brian now holds a gold medal and two bronze medals in the U/23 category. Last year, Brian won gold for Ireland in the event when he was partnered by Konan Pazzaia. Brian and Adam had only joined together a previous before to their Canadian races.
Brian’s father, Tommy Colsh Jnr, (who was a prominent rower with Athlone Boat Club and Marist College) and mother Rosie travelled to Canada to see Brian compete in the final.
While the two Irish lads were third throughout the race, the commentator on the video of the race on the World Rowing Championship website said as the race neared the end that “the Irish are currently sitting 13 metres behind the Australians for 2nd place”.
However, the positions remained the same as it was from the beginning and Poland won in a time of 6:11.08, while Australia finished second in 6:13.09 and Brian and Adam were third in 6:15.8.
Speaking about his son to the Westmeath Independent, Tommy said that Brian’s goals had changed this year, and after he narrowly missed out on an Olympic qualification spot, he went again for the World Championships.
“He changed partner a month before the Championships, and it culminated into a massive championship for him, by winning a bronze medal,” said Tommy. “Adam and Brian last raced together in Serbia in 2020 at the European Junior Championship and they won a silver medal, but the two of them are professional, training full-time, but hadn’t raced together since then, so it was an unknown quantity when they went to Canada.”
However, Tommy said that they did well in the heats on the Sunday before the final, and that gave an indication of where they were, and they saw that the Polish and Australians were the ones to beat.
Brian has spent the past eighteen months training full-time, dividing his time between Cork, where he moved to in 2023, and Italy.
“He knew the Aussies and Croatians were going to be very fast, but the Poles were the ones to beat,” said Tommy. “Brian knew they (Adam and Brian) had to go early, and they were straight out of the box, and in fairness they were extremely brave and went out hard.”
The weather was good and really warm and conditions were good for the Canadian race.
Tommy, Brian and his family were happy and humbled with the turnout given by the Tormey Villas residents last Sunday.
“The Ropers had flags out, Alice Dowler had flags out and it was great to see Dina Flanagan and her daughter Ann Noelle, and so many others,” said Tommy.