Rowing: Thailand small squad with high hopes

Gay Horan is head coach of the Thailand rowing team, which has four crews competing at Karapiro this week. Photo / Alan Gibson

Among the more obscure rowing nations competing at Lake Karapiro this week is the tiny team from Thailand.

They are small not only in numbers but also stature, with all of their 10-strong squad entered in lightweight boats.

"All rowers are lightweight in Thailand - there's nobody big enough," coach Gay Horan chuckles.

But she believes her squad are primed to make giant gains in this week's world championships.

Australian-born Horan, who has represented her country of origin and New Zealand in rowing, has pulled together a young team, a sign of the growing popularity of the sport in Thailand.

The former Sydney-sider moved to New Zealand in the early 80s after she met her now husband Geoff Horan, who with his brother Alan represented New Zealand in the men's lightweight pair at the 1984 Olympics.

Switching her rowing allegiances, Gay continued to compete in New Zealand, swinning a handful of national titles.

But since the pair retired, Geoff's work as a steel fabricator has taken the Horan family all around the world.

They spent six years in Papua New Guinea before moving to Thailand in 1996.

Just after settling there, the couple chanced upon a newspaper article about a young woman who was keen to row, but had nobody to coach her.

"The article that went along with it said [world governing body] Fisa had given the boats to Thailand, with a video and said 'here, start to row'," said Gay.

"They didn't have any help, they didn't have any coaching."

So the Horans put their hands up, driving two hours to Bangkok every weekend to help the team out on a voluntarily basis.

And did they need help.

"They had the most shocking equipment you've ever seen," Gay Horan said. "They had 20-year-old boats that were all shaped like bananas and twisted and they were using canoe oars because they didn't know the difference."

Rowing in Thailand is governed by the Navy, and is grouped with kayaking, canoe racing and the traditional long boat, so it is a battle to get a decent slice of the funding pie.

But the tenacious Australian managed to secure funding for the team, which allowed them to buy some of Rowing New Zealand's old boats, and set about building a programme for the local rowers.

Progress has been slow but certain.

The team at Karapiro this week is the largest representation Thailand have had at a world championships, with four crews competing - a lightweight men's double sculls and coxless four, a female lightweight single sculler and coxed four.

With only six entries in the latter event, Thailand are guaranteed to make the A final - a first for the fledgling rowing nation, which has captured the imagination of the team.

"Once you're in the A final there are possibilities," said Gay Horan.

The Horan family now live in Edmonton, Canada, where Gay oversees the Thailand rowing programme from afar. "And guess what I do in the winters in Canada?" Gay asks.

"I'm a ski instructor."