Athletes in Poznan: Sally Kehoe

 She then worked her way through under-23 teams and on to the senior team to race in the eight at the Beijing Olympics. All that and she’s only 22 years old. Kehoe is racing at the 2009 World Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland.

World Rowing talks to Kehoe about Poznan and her switch back to sculling as she joins teammate, Pippa Savage in the double.

World Rowing: How do you like Poznan and the rowing course here so far?
Sally Kehoe: I love Poznan. The course is great and I like the city. So often rowing events are far away from everything, here I love the proximity to the city. The closeness of the course to the city centre is great – you are right in the middle of things. Also, I reckon that man-made rowing courses are cool. Everything is close together and they make it easy to follow the racing.

WR: How was the start of these World Championships for you?
SK: The heat was our first race together and it all felt very new over the first 1,000m. But I reckon we were able to establish a good base for the rest of the regatta to build on. Also, beating the Americans in the heat was a good benchmark for us. It’s good to know where we are at in the field, after not rowing at the Rowing World Cups. We are a bit the unknown for the others too. When we stayed in Australia we got see the others race and saw their times. But they didn’t see us and our times.

WR: You had the fastest qualifying time and had the chance to watch the other crews. Who do you think will be your biggest opponents?
SK: I rowed the double last in 2005 and I have the feeling that there’s a whole more depth in the women’s double now, which is very exciting. I reckon Poland, Great Britain and the US are a few of the frontrunners of our event. But never underestimate Neykova (BUL). I raced against her in 2005 and it’s great to race against her again now. I thought it was great when she won the single in Beijing. She is one of my favourite rowers. It’s really cool to race rowers of that calibre and even better to beat them…that would be one to tell the kids.

WR: What is your goal for these World Championships?
SK: This is our first year together in the double and it’s a learning season for the two of us. We will continue to learn during this regatta. Ultimately gold would be nice of course. I haven’t got a senior gold medal yet and I like winning.

WR: Was it difficult to stay away from the international racing and prepare from Australia?
SK: It was definitely quite strange to not do the World Cup season this year and to stay home and train during winter. It was my first winter in Australia since 2002. But in some way we were also at the World Cups. Not in person, but mentally, since we had our own competitions on the same weekends in Penrith, Sydney. Only that we had to race in 7 degrees Celsius. We tried our best to imitate the World Cups. We did handicap races with the lightweight double and the pair.

WR: Where and how did you prepare for the World Championships?
SK: We trained the double in Brisbane and then did our own “World Cup Regattas” in Penrith. In Brisbane, it was just us training there so it was a bit hard to be part of the team. I reckon I actually did more 2k pieces this year than during a World Cup season. Our coach is Phil Bourguignon and he was already my coach in junior years. Tim Conrad coached us also. The whole team arrived in Europe on August 10 and we have been training in Gavirate in Italy since then before we got to Poznan last Tuesday. It always takes a long time before you get over the jetlag. Usually the jet-lag difficulties last for ten days. Especially the first three days the body does not know what’s happening when you take it training at 3am!
 
WR: You had a rib injury in April which questioned your final selection for a while. How did that happen and how did you keep calm?
SK: That was karma. After the Olympic Games I thought I wasn’t going to row this year. So I didn’t do much training. Then I rowed at our nationals at the end of February and after that I thought to give it a go anyway and see where I end up. I reckon the rib injury was probably due to the sudden increase in training. I got back in the boat with Pippa just before the Munich World Cup and at our racing in Penrith that weekend we had top prognostic times and were selected. But starting this year with less training and having a bit of a break was good for my head space. I have been enjoying this season much more and I have been a lot fresher. Also, I was able to finish off some university courses.

WR: Why the switch back to sculling?
SK: Sculling suits my body type much better. I enjoyed the challenge of the sweep rowing and also the camaraderie. It’s a different team feeling when you are racing the pair to get into the eight and then actually make the team. But I love my single and it was only natural to go into the double from there.

WR: The women’s double is the Australian priority sculling boat this year – are there any other plans for the future?
SK: Rowing Australia is aiming for more quality than quantity. We want to start winning more. I think the focus will be more on building strong sculling boats than a strong eight.

WR: New boat – new partner. How is that all coming along?
SK: Pippa and I bring different aspects to the boat, which seems to work well. There are actually a lot of differences. She’s 187cm and I’m 172cm, Pippa is raw power and I use my rowing experience. But it works. I’m sitting in bow, since it’s easier for to me to follow her than the other way around. There are also some similarities. We are actually from the same city Toowoomba in Queensland. And we went to the same school: when she was in grade seven, I was in grade one. It’s actually quite ironic to have two national team rowers in the same boat who are from Toowoomba – a city with no water and one of the driest areas in Australia with the toughest water restrictions. But we both picked up rowing in Brisbane: Pippa went there for University and I got into rowing when I got a sporting scholarship for a boarding school in Brisbane in grade eight. I came from swimming and touch football and then got interested in rowing.

WR: And what’s next after Poznan?
SK: I will definitely stay in sculling and my preference would be the smaller boats. It also offers more flexibility for training, which I like. Then it will be great to have the World Rowing Championships in the Southern Hemisphere next year. We’ll love Karapiro – no jetlag!

The World Rowing team values feedback.