#Rower of the Month: The Afloat Rower of the Month for January 2016 is Paul O’Donovan. The UCD oarsman produced a remarkable time of six minutes 7.5 seconds at the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships to smash the Irish record for a lightweight – the time of 6:14.6 set by his brother Gary earlier in the open competition. Paul is 21 and competed in the under-23 section. Sanita Puspure and Claire Lambe were amongst those who set new records at the championships. Paul O’Donovan and Gary O’Donovan will compete for Ireland as a lightweight double scull at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro later this year.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times, and David O'Brien, editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie and the overall national award will be presented to the person or crew who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results in, or made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2016. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2016 champions list grow.

#Rowing: A horde of Irish records fell at the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships at the University of Limerick today. Sanita Puspure set a new time for the women’s open category of 6 minutes 36.7 seconds. The second fastest time was also a record, as 17-year-old Emily Hegarty clocked 6:57.0, lopping over two  seconds off the old junior record set by Lisa Dilleen. Claire Lambe’s time of 7 minutes 12.6 seconds was a new Irish record for a lightweight woman.

  Paul O’Donovan set an excellent time for the lightweight under-23 category – 6:07.5 – over two seconds better than his previous personal best. His brother and soon-to-be Olympic crewmate, Gary, had been the fastest in the open lightweight section, with a time of 6:14.6. The men’s junior 18 category was won by Cathal Cummins in a new Irish record of 6:16.2. Sam McKeown’s hopes of breaking six minutes in the men’s open category fell short, though his time of 6:02.9 was 1.8 seconds better than his previous best.

 Other record breakers on the day included Paul Gallen (lightweight men, 60 to 69), Niall O’Brien (open, 50-59), Priscilla O’Sullivan (women’s open, 50-59) and Catherine McKeon (pararowing, legs trunk and arms).

Irish Indoor Rowing Championships, University of Limerick, Saturday (Selected Results)

Men

Open: 1 S McKeown 6:02.9, 2 T Oliver 6:03.2, 3 P Buchanan 6:09.6, 4 P Doyle 6:10.7, 5 D Brown 6:13.0, 6 K Coughlan 6:13.1. Under-23: 1 J Casey 6:18.3, 2 D Mitchell 6:18.5, 3 P Munnelly 6:19.7. Junior 18: 1 C Cummins 6:16.2, 2 R Byrne 6:16.7, 3 D Lynch 6:18.3. Jun 16: R Tummon 6:38.2.

Lightweight – Open: 1 G O’Donovan 6:14.6, 2 M O’Donovan 6:18.0, 3 S O’Driscoll 6:18.8, 4 L Keane 6:24.8.

Under-23: 1 P O’Donovan 6:07.5, 2 S Mulvaney 6:21.8, 3 L Seaman 6:25.7

Pararowing – LTA (1,000m): S Ryan 3.30.6.

Women

Open: 1 S Puspure 6:36.7, 2 M Dukarska 6:58.9, 3 L Kennedy 7:01.9, 4 A Keogh 7:06.1, 5 S Bennett 7:13.8, 6 R Maguire 7:15.0. Under-23: 1 S Bounane 7:16.8, 2 E Lambe 7:18.6, 3 S Murphy 7:30.1. Junior 18: E Hegarty 6:57.0, 2 H Scott 7:20.7, 3 M Cremin 7:23.6. Jun 16: C Nic Dhonncha 7:35.6.

Lightweight – Open: 1 C Lambe 7:12.6, 2 Sarah Dolan 7:17.0, 3 S McCrohan 7:18.4. Under-23: E McGiff 7:41.9.

Pararowing – LTA (1,000m): C McKeon 3:37.1.

 Best Overall Club (Eddie Crean Trophy): St Joseph’s, Galway