KEALAN Mannix had to wait a long time for the biggest medal of his rowing career, powering to gold at the European Coastal & Beach Sprint Rowing Championships in September.

Within a month, the Rosscarbery rower (28) went one better – winning silver at the World Coastal Rowing Championships in China.

When the Star caught up with Mannix after his European gold in Spain, he was flying high.

‘This is right at the top,’ he beamed.

‘It’s my first medal at any Europeans or Worlds.

‘I had a few fourth places over the years and I have never been out of the top ten at the coastals, so this was a long time coming.’

A few weeks later, after the Worlds, we reached out to Mannix again – he’s currently in Sydney for six months, coaching and training – for an update.

‘The World silver has to go to the top,’ he said.

‘It’s on a bigger stage.’

Kealan Mannix has won European and World medals in recent weeks.

Both medals were won in the double alongside fellow Cork rower Ronan Byrne, from Ballinlough, who has represented Ireland at the Olympics on the flat water.

Together, Mannix and Byrne have formed a formidable partnership. In their two international regattas together, they’ve won European gold and World silver.

‘We have been racing against each other all these years but have just got in the double now – and it’s going really well,’ Mannix said.

‘We had never tried the double before, but it just worked.

‘We did one or two regattas at home, and the Europeans were our first international together.’

Ahead of the Irish Rowing Championships in July, we spoke to Mannix too, and he filled us in on why he took a year off the water in 2025.

He felt he had stagnated, so wanted to jolt his system. Quick, but not quick enough, was his honest assessment of where he was. A year on dry land, spent building his strength, has paid off.

‘I ended up faster than I ever was in the single on the flat water,’ said Mannix, who rows on the flat water with Skibbereen Rowing Club, but joins up with Dunmanway Rowing Club for coastal rowing.

At the national championships, Mannix finished second in the men’s senior single scull. Only Skibb club-mate and double Olympic champion Fintan McCarthy was faster. Encouraging signs, as he turned his focus to the rougher water for the rest of the year.

Switching from one rowing discipline to another doesn’t slow Mannix down.

‘The boat set-up is the same, the fitness is the same, the technique more or less is the same – you just have to get the technique for rough water and navigation,’ he said.

‘I have been at that type of coastal rowing for six years. Every year, you get more confident.

‘The rough water can get really rough. A lot of it is having confidence that you’re going to be fine. You have people who go into coastal rowing for the first time, hit rough water and get scared.

‘You learn how to deal with it, that it doesn’t matter if the swell is higher than your head, but the first few times you go out in a swell that you can’t see over the top of, it can be daunting.’

Mannix’s experience matters here, whether it’s river rowing or coastal rowing – he’s at the stage of his development where he takes it in his stride.

Take the European Coastal & Beach Sprint Rowing Championships as an example. Mannix and Byrne emerged as European champions in the coastal endurance men’s double section. They lined up against 19 other international crews in the A final, but rowed smart over the six-kilometre course.

‘I have been rowing for 19 years. Ronan is probably about the same. He has gone to the Olympics, I have done five coastal Europeans and maybe four coastal worlds. There is no shortage of race experience,’ Mannix says.

He breaks down where the European final was won.

‘You are left with two options in coastal rowing. You can either commit to it and try to get to the first buoy first, get out and not crash. Or you can commit to taking a wider line at the first buoy to guarantee you don’t crash. You can get stuck in crashes there, lose 30 seconds and your race is done,’ he explains.

‘We felt that we were both the fittest we’ve ever been, that we have the fitness for a 30-minute race so we decided to go wide. We committed to that at the first turn – when you do that, you’re not that high up the ranking when you come out, but you didn’t lose speed and you didn’t crash.

‘We did that for the next two bends, stayed wide and kept missing all the crashes. We were catching boats on the straights and eventually we caught them all.’

They took that confidence and belief to the Worlds in China.

While the American crew of Kory Rogers and Chris Bak took gold, the Irish boat brought home silver – a best-ever result for Mannix, who also finished fourth in the men’s single.

‘It was a great result, we did everything we could and couldn’t do much more. The US was that little bit ahead. Delighted with it,’ Mannix says.

‘We didn’t have a great heat, even if it was just a race for lanes. We came fifth – we weren’t totally under pressure in it, but it wasn’t great.

‘In the heat we went into the first turn in maybe eighth position, so we said for the final that if we could get to the first turn in maybe third or fourth, we’d be happy enough because we have a good second half to a race. We knew we could challenge from that position.

‘We went through that first turn in third place and we were delighted with that.’

On a personal level, it’s been a huge few weeks for Mannix – from the Europeans in Spain and a homecoming in Dunmanway, to moving to Australia, heading to the Worlds in China, and flying back to his training base in Sydney.

He emerges from this whirlwind few weeks with more belief in his potential.

‘It definitely gives you the boost that you are there,’ he muses.

‘It’s not some far-out goal anymore, you’re at the level now, so another big year will get you up there, and hopefully push up for gold, and maybe push for a medal in the single.

‘It gives you that boost for the next year of training.’

He also has options to play with, though admits the coastal rowing beach sprints, which will make an Olympic debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Games, are not on his radar.

‘If I do try for LA, I think I’d be trying to go for the flat water,’ he explains.

‘I am more of a long-distance athlete. With beach sprints, the standard has gone very high. I just haven’t been training at it or focused on it. I have almost missed the boat a little bit with it.

‘I didn’t commit to it, but I preferred the coastal and that’s what I committed to.’

It’s a plan that has worked, as Mannix’s recent medal haul proves.