Another busy day of racing is complete, with successful heats across the board from Ireland. All crews today have avoided the Repechages and go straight into the A/B Semi-Finals later this week.

Katie O’Brien is back in the scull and raced the PR2 W1x Preliminary race this morning. Her last outing in the single was at World Cup II in Poznan earlier this year, where she not only won gold, but set a World Best Time of 9:14.65. With just four entries in the event, all crews are into the A Final, but today it was the race for lanes. Katie finished second behind the current World Champion, Kathryn Ross from Australia. The A Final takes place this Friday, but Katie will race again tomorrow with her fellow Galway RC teammate, Steven McGowan, in the heat of the PR2 Mix2x.

Tara Hanlon (UCC RC) and Natalie Long (Lee Valley RC) have secured their place in the Women’s Pair A/B Semi-Final after a second place finish in their heat. Drawn against the Olympic Championships, New Zealand’s Kerri Williams and Grace Prendergast, Ireland put down a strong performance maintaining second position throughout the race. On Thursday they race again to try and make it into the top six spots in the A Final.

The Women’s Lightweight Double of Margaret Cremin and Aoife Casey had a fantastic heat, taking the only spot straight into the A/B Semi. Going off the start line at rate 53, the UCC rowers didn’t give any of the crews a chance to catch them. The Olympic Champions from Italy sat in second position for the majority of the race, but Margaret and Aoife continued to pull away from them through each quarter. Ireland finished 4.33 seconds ahead of the German double to take the one qualifying position for the A/B Semi.

Sanita Puspure and Zoe Hyde are back in the double after having to pull out of racing last month, at the European Championships due to illness. Nothing seems to be holding them back this time around, as they won their heat, qualifying directly into the A/B Semi on Friday. Approaching the first 500m mark in third position, Ireland held an impressively consistent speed through the remainder of the race, breaking through the Chinese and Canadian doubles by the halfway mark.

The Olympic bronze medal winning Women’s Four are back in the boat together, after racing in different combinations so far this season. Emily Hegarty (UCC RC), Fiona Murtagh (University of Galway BC), Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians) and Aifric Keogh (DULBC) sat in second place behind Romania until the 1000m mark, but never let them get more than a second ahead of them. After the halfway point, Ireland moved out to lead the race and finished with a time of 6:27.59, the fastest time of the three heats.

Ireland’s Men’s Four of John Kearney (UCC RC), Ross Corrigan (QUBBC), Nathan Timoney (QUBBC) and Jack Dorney (Shandon BC) have also put in an impressive performance in their heat, placing second behind Great Britain. Two spots were up for grabs for direct progression to the A/B Semi so the crew from Ireland are straight through to Thursday’s race.

Alison finished third in the Repechage for the Women’s Scull, progressing her to the C/D Semi-Final on Thursday. Only the top two crews gained a place in the A/B Semi, and it was the scullers from Serbia and Spain that first broke away from the crews. With the distance between the leading crews and the rest of the field, it looked like Spain and Serbia were to be the clear qualifiers. Alison put in one more push in the last 500m, significantly decreasing the lead that the other scullers had on her, but she was just short on the line, finishing in third place.

All races are live streamed on the World Rowing Website HERE

Ireland Results

  • PR2 W1x Preliminary Race 2nd -> A Final
  • W2- Heat 2nd -> A/B Semi
  • LW2x Heat 1st -> A/B Semi
  • W2x Heat 1st -> A/B Semi
  • W4- Heat 1st -> A/B Semi
  • M4- Heat 2nd -> A/B Semi
  • W1x Rep 3rd -> C/D Semi

Tuesday Schedule (IST)

  • PR2 Mix2x Heat – 9:20am
  • LW1x Rep – 9:54am