Rowing Ireland men’s lightweight double Scull and Olympic Gold medallists crowned World Rowing Men’s crew of the year.
World Rowing today announced that the World men’s crew of the year is Ireland’s own lightweight double scull of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy. In a virtual event that celebrated the finest rowers and coaches around the World, the nominations featured three other World Rowing’s premium crews from France, Holland and the Kiwi Olympic eight.
World Rowing commended the Rowing Ireland HP programme led by HP Director Antonio Maurogiovanni on their surge in rowing over the last number of years. Rowing Ireland’s Fintan McCarthy spoke online to the World Rowing Awards, having just finished training at the home of Irish Rowing in the Kinetica National Rowing Centre, outside Cork City. McCarthy reflected on the growing system of High-Performance rowing in place at present with a vital pathway and he spoke about the large group of athletes all training together at the Kinetica NRC in order “to make the boats go faster”. The other half of the Olympic duo, Paul O’Donovan couldn’t make the awards due to his commitments at UCC, where he is studying medicine.
Rowing Ireland CEO Michelle Carpenter said, “It is an absolute honour that World Rowing has awarded our men’s lightweight double this prestigious award. I would like to congratulate Paul and Fintan and the whole HP team on this formidable award. As we were sitting at a Rowing Ireland Board meeting this morning the awards were announced. It was such positive news to reflect on where we have come from and where we are going as we head into the Paris cycle. It was also poignant and gives us great inspiration on a day where sport seems to be opening, as one of our seasons’ first events was underway on the Marina in Cork. This award and our continued Rowing Ireland strategy gives us great hope for the future in all our programme’s. With the committed support of Sport Ireland, Sport NI, the OFI, our partner Universities and our sponsors: Kinetica Sports, Powerhouse Sports, Sanity Systems, and Avison Young, everyone has contributed hugely to the growth and success of Irish Rowing over the last number of years. It takes a village to raise a child, and now we have such incredible role models that everyone involved in our sport can look up to and know they can achieve the same through hard work and perseverance.
