#Rowing: Paul O’Donovan was by far the fastest single sculler at the Irish Trial, held over six kilometres at the National Rowing Centre today. The conditions at this point were excellent, and the world lightweight champion clocked 23 minutes 25 seconds, 42 seconds ahead of his brother, Gary, who took third. Second place was taken by Ronan Byrne, the under-23 heavyweight. Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan did not compete through illness and injury.

Monika Dukarska was the fastest woman in the single sculls – Sanita Puspure did not compete. The Ireland crew of Aileen Crowley and Aifric Keogh took first pace in the pair – but had only three seconds to spare over Tara Hanlon and Emily Hegarty. The Fermoy junior pair of Eliza O’Reilly and Gill McGirr showed good form to take third.

Conditions changed at the end of the session.

Irish Trial, National Rowing Centre (Selected Results)

Men

Pair: 1 Shandon (Murphy, Prendergast; sen) 23 mins, 39 sec, 2 St Michael’s (McKeon, Garvey; under-23) 24:02, 3 Neptune (Hogan, Stevens) 24:20. Junior 18: Castleconnell (Mulready, O’Donovan) 24:37.

Single Sculls: 1 P O’Donovan (lightweight) 23 mins 25 seconds, 2 R Byrne (u23 hwt) 23:46, 2 G O’Donovan (lwt) 24:07, 4 J McCarthy (u23 lwt) 24:09, 5 S McKeown (hwt) 24:12, 6 Justin Ryan (hwt) 24:17.

Women

Pair: 1 A Crowley, A Keogh (hwt) 24:51, 2 E Hegarty, T Hanlon (hwt) 24:54, 3 E O’Reilly, G McGirr (jun) 25:49

Single Sculls: 1 M Dukarska (hwt) 25:04, 2 D Walsh (lwt) 25:28, 3 A Casey (u23 lwt) 26:04, 4 C Lambe (hwt) 26:18.