Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians), Tara Hanlon (UCC RC), Aifric Keogh (DULBC) and Natalie Long (Lee Valley RC) have started the A Finals on a high, winning a silver medal in the Women’s Four.
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Sunday
Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have done it again, winning gold in the LM2x. The West Cork duo have continued their success streak, adding more silverware to their collection. Overall it was a successful European Championships for the Irish, with two medals and all other crews finishing just outside of the podium positions in fourth place.
Paul and Fintan raced as they always do, a solid start placing them in the middle of the field followed by a significant second half, where they consistently find the speed to pull through every crew ahead. The Swiss double went out hard, leading to the 1k and holding onto the Irish coming into the last quarter. In the end, they just couldn’t keep up with Paul and Fintan, dropping back into third position crossing the line. The Irish crew are no strangers to the podium, and there’s no doubt that they’ll be up there again.
Aoife Casey (UCC RC) was first up today in the A Final of the LW1x. Similar to her repechage yesterday, Aoife had an incredibly quick finish, gaining two seconds on Martine Veldhuis from the Netherlands in third position. Pushing towards the line, Aoife just missed out on the medals by a mere 1.4 seconds.
The PR2 Mix2x of Katie O’Brien (Galway RC) and Steven McGowan (Galway RC) put in a strong showing in their A Final, finishing in fourth position. The Irish double had raced both Poland and France at World Cup II in June, and have shown a significant improvement in times in comparison. Katie and Steven sat 21 seconds behind the Polish in June, and that has been reduced down to 12 seconds today. This PR2 Mix2x is one to watch as there’s much more to come.
In an extremely tight race, the Lightweight Women’s Double of Margaret Cremen and Lydia Heaphy finished just outside of the medals in fourth position. The Irish crew went off like a rocket from the start, rating 56 strokes per minute, and leaving everyone else behind. In the final 1000m it was bow ball to bow ball between themselves and the Italians for third place. In the end it was the Italian double who pushed ever so slightly ahead, taking the bronze medals by just .64 of a second from Margaret and Lydia.
"It’s great to come away from the European Championships with all crews having reached A Finals and having won two medals.
This is now the minimum standard being reached by the Rowing Ireland team: top six for European events and top 10 for Worlds and Olympics across all categories in an Olympic boat class. We have also learnt a lot from this event which will help us analyse the overall situation of the team as well as finalising crews in the lead up to the World Championships in September.
A big well done to all the athletes for their performances and particularly to the two medal winning crews. We had entered eight crews, namely a lot of excitement for the Women's 8, but unfortunately due to medical reasons two of these crews had to be withdrawn. All the remaining six crews reached the A final (top six) with LM2x gold, W4- silver and all the other four crews performing well in 4th position.
Well done to all coaches. They don't go on the podium but nevertheless deserve recognition and a medal for their hard work. Well done to our team manager and physio for always being there when we need them. Thank you to the continued support from all of our sponsors, members, supporters and particularly from SI, SNI and our board of directors."
Irish Results
- LM2x A Final - Gold medals
- W4- A Final - Silver medals
- LW2x A Final - 4th place
- W2- A Final - 4th place
- PR2 Mix2x A Final - 4th place
- LW1x A Final - 4th place
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Saturday
Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians), Tara Hanlon (UCC RC), Aifric Keogh (DULBC) and Natalie Long (Lee Valley RC) have started the A Finals on a high, winning a silver medal in the Women’s Four. With four more A Finals tomorrow, there could be more medals lined up to come back to Ireland.
First up today was Fiona Murtagh (NUIG BC) and Emily Hegarty (UCC RC) in the Women’s Pair. The girls went out hard staying within touching distance of third place through the halfway mark. The Romanian pair of Ioana Vrinceanu and Denisa Tilvescu put on a major push at this point, moving through Great Britain and the Netherlands. The Irish crew kept their heads down and continued to hold their pace through to the finish, crossing the line in fourth place ahead of Croatia and Greece.
The Women’s Four managed to bump up their bronze medal position in World Cup II, to a silver medal position today at the European Championships. Right from the start buzzer, the Irish crew stuck their bow ahead of the rest of the field. The GB four that won at both World Cup I and World Cup III just managed to pull ahead of the Irish crew in the second quarter, but didn’t go far. Eimear, Tara, Aifric and Natalie stayed on GB, only allowing a two second gap to develop and continued to hold off the crews from Romania and Denmark, despite their last minute surge for the line. The Irish were taking the silver medals, with a time of 6:52.99.
"I am very proud of this group of eight girls. The W4- and W2- improved on their performance compared to World Cup II relative to the rest of the field." said Giuseppe De Vita, Senior Women's Head Coach. "I feel very sorry that we didn't get to see the W2x and W8+ which, I am sure, would have been very competitive. As coaches there's nothing more that we can ask for than a steady, consistent improvement up to the major event, and this group is consistently growing therefore I am very thankful and grateful of all of them, for their trust in the program."
The remaining A Finals take place tomorrow for the Para and lightweight boats. All races will be played live on RTE2 and on the livestream available on the World Rowing website.
Saturday Results
- W4- A Final - Silver medals
- W2- A Final - 4th place
