Erg champ Keagan readies for worlds on water
With on-the-water rowing mostly halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rowing Canada had to take a different approach to choosing the athletes it would send to the World Rowing Junior Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria this August.
Interested athletes were told to submit two-kilometre ergometer scores in order to determine who would be invited to the selection camp. That process couldn’t have been a better method when it came to the junior national aspirations of Shane Keagan, a Grade 12 student at Ridley College.
On the resume of the 17-year-old Fonthill resident are back-to-back Ontario and Canadian titles in the under-17 men’s 2,000 metre divisions at the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships, a 2021 Canadian title in the under-19 men’s 500-metre division and a bronze medal at the 2021 world indoor rowing championships.
Seven males were invited to attend the selection camp at the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre in Welland and all seven were told they would be attending the worlds in Bulgaria. Canada will send a single, pair and a quad, that includes Keagan, Adrian Breen of the Don Rowing Club, Giancarlo DiPompeo from the St. Catharines Rowing Club and Payton Gauthier from the Niagara Falls Rowing Club.
Joy wasn’t the overriding emotion when Keagan heard the news.
“It was big relief because it is a lot of work,” the Ridley Graduate Boat Club member said. “I didn’t expect to ever be selected to go to junior worlds so even going into the summer I had made plans training wise and work-wise. It was a lot of flip-flopping when they asked me to come out to Welland and train with them.”
The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder admitted to being stressed out with the training.
“It is a whole other level and it was a big relief to know that I had done it for something,” he said. “When it was up in the air if we were going it was ‘Why am I this tired and why am I training five hours a day?” at that moment.”
That training has been a boon to his development.
“It is finding that next level. It has been eye-opening training because everyone there is a superstar at whatever club or school they are from. They are putting all of us together and telling us we have to take it to the next level. It knocked me back.”
He is looking forward to getting a chance to do something special at junior worlds.
“It is just the opportunity itself and I am really excited that I have the potential to do something.”
Wearing a Canadian singlet and having Canadian flag on his blades will also be thrill.
“Oh definitely,” he said, with a laugh. “You can throw that in there too.”
He hasn’t come up with any specific goals for the worlds.
“I have no idea. I never thought I would even be selected.”
Keagan started rowing at Ridley College in September of his Grade 9 year and the following spring he captured Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association gold in the junior men’s eight and a bronze in the junior men’s four in Grade 9.
His last on-the-water race came in 2019 at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta.
“I flipped in the single during the heats,” he said, with a laugh. “I was doing quite well and I was happy with my performance up to about 1,000 metres.”
Keagan is looking forward to a long career in rowing.
“I plan on rowing through university and depending how successful I am there, obviously that will determine where I end up. It would be great to potentially do an Olympics someday.”
