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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Displaying items by tag: Slovenia

#rowingworldchampionships – Enjoy the sensations of a rower at the start, just before the rowing battle begins! In this video rowers talk about being at the startline, describing their emotions, the stage-fright, the goosebumps and about their mental preparation before the rowing battle begins.
Listen to the world class rowers Fabiana Beltrame (BRA), Barnabe Delarze (SUI), Pedro Fraga (POR), Kristine Putnina (LAT), Iva Obradovic (SER) and Llilijana Josic (SER).

The 2015 rowing season has started with World Rowing Cup in Bled, Slovenia. Tight racing resulted in the World Cup regatta points trophy being shared equally between China and Germany. Germany won four gold medals. These came in the blue riband men's eight race as well as the men's double sculls and men's and women's quadruple sculls. The men's double sculls saw former single sculling champion Marcel Hacker team up successfully with Stephan Krueger to create a potentially winning new 2015 combination.
Scoring the most number of medals overall was China. The Chinese came to Bled with a large team and they won gold in both the lightweight women's double sculls and the lightweight men's pair. China won silver and bronze in the women's pair after getting five of their six entered crews through to the final. But it was the Dutch pair of Olivia van Rooijen and Elisabeth Hogerwerf who earned the gold. China also took silver and bronze in the lightweight men's four.
Belarus won two gold medals, one by 42-year-old Ekaterina Karsten in the women's single sculls. The six-time Olympian Karsten was a last minute entry in the single after her doubles partner had to withdraw due to injury. Belarus was also successful with gold in the men's four.

As well as the women's pair, the Netherlands won a second gold medal in the lightweight men's double sculls. Brothers Tycho and Vincent Muda kept the lead in a close race to the line which saw the silver and bronze medals decided by less than a second.
Poland picked up six medals overall to finish third on the points table. Poland's medals included gold in the women's double sculls following an impressive performance by Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj.
Overall 20 nations earned World Cup points.

The World Rowing Cup series now moves to Varese, Italy from 18-21 June 2015 for World Rowing Cup II. Before that, European nations will be competing in the European Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland from 29-31 May 2015. Ireland will compete in Poznan.

The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and consists of a series of three events. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after the third event. This year, the three stages of the series are Bled, Slovenia (9-10 May), Varese, Italy (18-21 June) and Lucerne, Switzerland (10-12 July), where Ireland will also enter a team.

Published in Rowing
Tagged under

#Canoeing - The death of an Irish student on a canoeing trip in Slovenia is the second tragedy to befall a north Dublin college's adventure sports management course, as The Irish Times reports.

The young man, who has not yet been named, was canoeing on the Soca river as part of an official trip to Slovenia organised by Coláiste Dhulaigh in Coolock.

It's reported that the "accomplished and experienced" canoeist was paddling through a stretch of whitewater when his arm got stuck in the rocks.

Despite the best efforts of his fellow students to rescue and revive him, he was pronounced dead shortly after.

The incident comes five months after another student on the same course, 21-year-old Shane Murphy from Baldoyle, lost his life while kayaking with friends on the swollen River Inchavore.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in Canoeing
Tagged under
Eoin Rheinisch made a good start in the K1 qualification round at the Canoe Slalom World Cup in Slovenia.
The Kildare native - who is recovering from a shoulder operation - finished 10th in the heats, qualifying for yesterday's semi-finals where he finished in 28th place.
The Irish Times reports that he described the performance as encouraging.
“I enjoyed myself today and that was my goal,” he said.
In other action from Slovenia, Hannah Craig failed make the semi-final in the women’s K1, while Patrick Hynes and Ciaran Heurteau missed out in the men’s K1.
Meanwhile in Serbia, Salmon Leap's Jenny Egan set a new Irish women's record of 1m 55.9 sec in the 500m semis at the European Sprint Canoe Championships in Belgrade, the Evening Herald reports.
She went on to finish ninth in both the 5,000m final annd 200m B final.
Fellow Salmon Leap member Barry Watkins placed fourth in the 500m B final and eighth in the 1,000m B final.

Eoin Rheinisch made a good start in the K1 qualification round at the Canoe Slalom World Cup in Slovenia.

The Kildare native - who is recovering from a shoulder operation - finished 10th in the heats, qualifying for yesterday's semi-finals where he finished in 28th place.

The Irish Times reports that he described the performance as encouraging. 

“I enjoyed myself today and that was my goal,” he said.

In other action from Slovenia, Hannah Craig failed make the semi-final in the women’s K1, while Patrick Hynes and Ciaran Heurteau missed out in the men’s K1.

Meanwhile in Serbia, Salmon Leap's Jenny Egan set a new Irish women's record of 1m 55.9 sec in the 500m semis at the European Sprint Canoe Championships in Belgrade, the Evening Herald reports.

She went on to finish ninth in both the 5,000m final annd 200m B final.

Fellow Salmon Leap member Barry Watkins placed fourth in the 500m B final and eighth in the 1,000m B final.

Published in Canoeing

How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]