The European Rowing U23 Championships takes place in Duisburg, Germany on Saturday and Sunday next. A record number of 650 competitors have been entered from 32 nations with Ireland sending 20 athletes. Of the twenty, two are from Galway with Sam O’Neill and Cliodhna Nolan from NUIG selected. Sam will be racing in the Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls and Cliodhna will be racing in the Lightweight Women’s Pairs along with Lydia Heapy of UCC. Sam’s heats will begin on Saturday morning at 8.30 with the heats of the Lightweight Womens Pairs starting at 8.45am.
Irish team competing:
Men’s Coxed Four (BM4+)
· Ross Corrigan (Queens)
· John Kearney (Cork BC)
· Jack Dorney (Shandon)
· Alex Byrne (UCC)
· Cox: Leah O’Regan (Shandon)
Lightweight Men’s Single Scull (BLM1x)
· Sam O’Neill (NUIG)
Lightweight Women’s Pair (BLW2-)
· Cliodhna Nolan (NUIG)
· Lydia Heaphy (UCC)
Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (BLM4x)
· Will Ronayne (UCC)
· Hugh Sutton (UCC)
· Hugh Moore (Queens)
· Eoin Gaffney (Shandon)
Women’s Single Scull (BW1x)
· Claire Feerick (Neptune)
Men’s Single Scull (BM2x)
· Ronan Byrne (UCC)
· Daire Lynch (Clonmel)
Women’s Pair (BW2-)
· Tara Hanlon (UCC)
· Emily Hegarty (UCC)
Lightweight Women’s Double Scull (BLW2x)
· Aoife Casey (UCC)
· Margaret Cremen (UCC)
Last year, there was a lot of success at Under 23 and Junior competitions from the team. Tara Hanlon, Emily Hegarty, and Claire Feerick won a Silver Medal in the Women’s Four and Eoin Gaffney and Hugh Sutton won Bronze in the Lightweight Men’s Quad at the 2019 World Rowing U23 Championships in Sarasota. Aoife Casey and Cliodhna finished 4th in the A Final, just missing out on the Bronze. Also in the squad, Matthew Gallagher, Jack Dorney, John Kearney and Leah O’Regan finished fourth in the A Final at the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championships in Tokyo.
There is also a lot of experience at Senior level with Lydia Heaphy, Aoife Casey, Hugh Sutton, Claire Feerick, Tara Hanlon, Emily Hegarty and Ronan Byrne all competed at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz. Ronan Byrne will be competing in the Men’s Double Scull with Daire Lynch, Ronan returns to the U23s European Championships after winning Gold in the men’s single sculls in Greece last year and winning Silver in the 2019 World Rowing Championships.
The athletes have all been training hard at the Kinetica National Rowing Centre in Cork and we want to continue the success of 2019. This is a great experience for many of the athletes that have previously competed at the Juniors World and Europeans last year. We look forward to what we hope will be a successful competition for Ireland.
Rowing Ireland’s High-Performance Director, Antonio Maurogiovanni said, “We are delighted that the first International Regatta of this year is going ahead as planned. It has been a very tough year for everybody and we are excited to get the team back on the water and compete at the U23 European Championships.
The athletes have all been training hard at the Kinetica National Rowing Centre in Cork and there has been a positive atmosphere among the entire team. This is a great experience for many of the athletes that have previously competed at the Juniors World and Europeans last year. We want to continue the success of 2019 and look forward to what we hope will be a success competition for Ireland.
Support the Athletes:
You can support our athletes by donating to Greenblades.
Greenblades is a fundraising platform set up by Rowing Ireland in 2019 to help support the athletes that are selected to represent Ireland.
Support our athletes: www.greenblades.ie/donate
Follow the racing:
All the races will be covered on Rowing Ireland’s Social Media Channels;
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RowingIreland
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rowingireland/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rowingireland/
Racing begins on Saturday 5 September 2020 with heats and progresses through Repechage, semi-finals and to the finals on Sunday 6 September.
There will be live video streaming available on World Rowing’s YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/WorldRowingFISA.
Keep track of results, race information, photographs on http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2020-european-rowing-under-23-championships/event-information
