A very successful day for Irish crews coming home with two medals, a new world record and five crews into the A Finals tomorrow.

Katie O’Brien has been the star of the day, not only did she win a gold medal, but she also set a new world best time. Dominating the race from the start line, Katie came in with a time of 09:14.65, 10.34 seconds faster than the previous world best time. She’ll race again tomorrow morning in the PR2 Mix2x A Final at 9:37am Irish time.

The first race up today was the LM1x A/B Semi where Fintan McCarthy and Gary O’Donovan went head to head. In a tight race with the top three crews within 2 seconds of each other, Fintan took the lead position, qualifying for the A Final and Gary narrowly missed out, qualifying for the B Final with a fifth place finish.

Fintan McCarthy put up a strong showing in the A Final of the LM1x, coming home with the silver medal and only one second off the gold medal. Gary placed fifth in the LM1x B Final.

Fiona Murtagh of NUIG and Emily Hegarty of UCC, stormed the W2- Repechage, winning with a time of 7:09.75, three seconds ahead of the next crew. After leading from the start, the crew qualified for the A Final tomorrow where they will race again in the fight for the medals.

The W2x of Sanita Puspure and Zoe Hyde came second in their Semi this afternoon, and have qualified for the A Final tomorrow. With fast racing in their Semi, Sanita and Zoe are going into the final with the second fastest time.

Next up with another fantastic race was the W4-. The crew won their A/B Semi, fighting to the line with the New Zealand and Canadian crews. Through the 1000m mark, the Irish 4- came through the Canadian crew and managed to stay ahead until the finish. With less than two seconds between the three crews, it’ll be an exciting final tomorrow.

In potentially one of the tightest races of the day, the Irish LW2x of Margaret Cremen and Lydia Heaphy, managed to keep their foot in the door and qualify for the A Final tomorrow. The leading four crews of Switzerland , New Zealand, Ireland and Poland, stayed in contention from the very start of the race. With only three crews to qualify for the A Final tomorrow, all crews were working hard the entire way through the race. Coming down to the last few meters, the Irish crew were able to secure their third place position and qualify for that A Final.

Sunday Schedule (IST)

  • PR2 Mix2x A Final ~ 9:37am
  • W2- A Final ~ 9:53am
  • W2x A Final ~ 10:23am
  • LW2x A Final ~ 10:53am
  • W4- A Final ~ 11:38am

Saturday Results

  • PR2 W1x Katie O’Brien – A Final – Gold medal (New world record)
  • LM1x Fintan McCarthy – A Final – Silver medal
  • LM1x Gary O’Donovan – B Final – 5th place
  • LM1x A/B Semi (Fintan) – 1st place
  • LM1x A/B Semi (Gary) – 5th place
  • W2- Rep – 1st place
  • W2x A/B Semi – 2nd place
  • W4- A/B Semi – 1st place
  • LW2x A/B Semi – 3rd place

Follow the Racing

You can follow the racing on World Rowing’s website, www.worldrowing.com

Live Streaming will be available on Sunday for the Finals.

Photo Credits: World Rowing www.worldrowing.com/gallery