Gary Lynagh reflects on rowing career at St Joseph’s College
They say that no matter what shape or size, there is a place for everyone in rugby. Gary Lynagh, cousin of Wallabies great Michael, proved them wrong.
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MIKE COLMAN takes a look back at some of the world-class talent to emerge from St Joseph’s, Gregory Terrace. Four-time winners of the prestigious O’Connor Cup, Terrace have a proud rowing history and will be out to break an 11-year drought at this year’s Head of the River.
They say that no matter what shape or size, there is a place for everyone in rugby. Gary Lynagh proved them wrong.
“I wasn’t cut out for it,” he said. “I was small, more suited to endurance than impact, and I was allergic to grass.”
Instead of following in the stud-marks of his cousin Michael – who starred in the 1st XV at rugby-mad St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace before playing 72 Tests for the Wallabies – Lynagh took up rowing.
The three-time world champion and Olympian first rowed at Terrace in 1985 and was part of the school crew that finished second in the 1987 Head of the River.
Terrace first contested the Head of the River in 1928 but then did not compete again until 1954, the last year before the race went from fours to eights. It was not until 1982 that Terrace first won the O’Connor Cup, a victory that, according to Lynagh, saw interest in the sport skyrocket at the school.
“It definitely stoked interest when that crew broke the drought,” he said.
Terrace has since enjoyed three distinct “golden periods” in the Head of the River. From 1981 to 1988, there was that 1982 win as well as three seconds and three thirds.
Between 1993 and 1998 Terrace recorded two wins (1994 and 1996), three seconds and a third. And the school’s most recent win, in 2008, was book ended by two second placings.
For Lynagh, now 48 and a professional photographer who specialises in rowing photos, the opportunity to row at Terrace opened up a whole new world.
“I suppose it gave me the chance to be good at something,” he said. “When you are lightweight like me, people tend to think you won’t be much good at sport.
“You train so much it tends to dictate your life. It becomes your number one priority. That’s why so many rowers stop when they leave school.
“It’s not a sport you do on the weekend for fun. It’s too hard.”
After school Lynagh won world championships in the lightweight quad scull in 1991 and double scull in 1992 and 1993. He became the first Terrace old boy (followed by cox of the eight Michael Toon in 2004) to represent Australia in rowing at the Olympics when he competed in the lightweight coxless four that finished sixth at Atlanta 1996.
“The Olympics was a great experience but we didn’t go as well as we had hoped,” he said. “Winning the world titles was my greatest thrill.”
But it wasn’t just winning, or even competing that kept Lynagh entranced by rowing.
“Some of my best memories are of training in winter, being on the river at dusk,’’ he said. “It was always a beautiful thing to do.”
St Joseph’s, Gregory Terrace
O’CONNOR CUP WINS: 2008, 1996, 1994, 1982
TOTAL: 4
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