#ROWING: Niall Kenny and Mark O’Donovan finished third in their heat of the lightweight double scull to qualify directly for the semi-finals at the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne in Switzerland today. Australia were the clear winners and Poland were second.

Olympic Qualification Regatta, Lucerne (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Double Scull (First Three From Heats Straight to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage) – Heat One: 1 Hungary (Z Hirling, T Varga) 6:32.80, 2 Bulgaria 6:37.98, Austria 6:39.59. Heat Two: 1 Australia (R Chisholm, T Gibson) 6:26.56, Poland 6:34.06, 3 Ireland (M O’Donovan, N Kenny) 6:36.01, 4 Turkey 6:40.65, 5 Armenia 7:10.88. Heat Three: United States (A Campbell Jr, W Daly) 6:24.40, 2 Spain 6:24.71, 3 Switzerland 6:35.65; 4 Czech Republic 6:49.21.

Women

Single Scull (First Two in Heats Straight to A/B Semi-Finals) – Heat One: 1 Serbia (I Obradovic) 7:27.70, 2 Estonia (K Pajusalu) 7:34.28. Heat Two: 1 Australia (K Crowe) 7:29.48, 2 United States (G Stone) 7:32.00. Heat Three: 1 Denmark (F Erichsen) 7:32.66, 2 Ireland (S Puspure) 7:35.85; 3 Norway (T Gjoertz) 7:35.88, 4 Latvia (E Gulbe) 7:53.35, 5 Bulgaria (LM Rusinova) 7:58.28

#ROWING: In a race with a dramatic finish, Ireland’s lightweight double of Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny finished fifth in the C Final of the lightweight men’s double at the World Cup Regatta in Belgrade this morning. This placed them 17th overall.

The Ireland crew held third behind two Austrian doubles until a final charge by Slovenia and surprise packets Croatia saw both boats pass them. Croatia were just one hundredth of a second ahead of the Irish on the line.

Michael Maher did not start his C Final in the men’s lightweight single scull.

World Cup, Belgrade – Day Two (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Double Scull – C Final (places 13 to 18): 1 Austria Two 6:24.17, 2 Austria Three 6:24.21, 3 Slovenia Two 6:26.16, 4 Croatia 6:26.66, 5 Ireland (M O’Donovan, N Kenny) 6:26.67, 6 Austria One 6:27.57.

Lightweight Single – C Final: Ireland (M Maher) did not start.

Women

Lightweight Single Scull – Repechage (First Four to A/B Semi-Final): 1 Switzerland (P Weisshaupt) 7:55.81, 2 Ireland (C Lambe) 7:57.35, 3 Sweden One (C Lilja) 7:58.63, 4 Croatia (H Pavkovic) 8:01.57; 5 Sweden Two (L Kalstroem) 8:06.42.

#ROWING: Ireland’s lightweight double scull of Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny did not make it into the A/B Semi-Finals at the World Cup regatta in Belgrade today. In a close-fought repechage, where two places were available, Ireland were in contention at half way, but in a hectic second 1,000 metres they fell back as Cuba and the Czech Republic took the qualification places.

Michael Maher also had a disappointing repechage in the lightweight single scull. He finished sixth, well outside the A/B Semi-Final places.

World Cup Regatta, Belgrade – Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Four – Heat Two (First Directly to A Final): 1 Britain (P Chambers, R Williams, R Chambers, C Bartley) 5:52.30.

Single Scull – Heat Two (Winner to A/B Semi-Final): 1 Britain (A Campbell) 6:57.43.

Lightweight Double Scull – Heat Four (Winner to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechages): 1 China (C Wu, F Zhang) 6:22.40, 2 Greece 6:26.19, 3 Austria Four 6:32.40, 4 Ireland (M O’Donovan, N Kenny) 6:32.96, 5 Austria Two 6:37.47. Repechage (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals): 1 Cuba 6:25.96, 2 Czech Republic 6:26.89; 3 Slovenia Two 6:27.15, 4 Ireland 6:30.89, 5 Sweden 6:36.06.

Lightweight Single Scull – Heat One (First Three to A/B Semi-Final; rest to Repechage): 1 France Two 7:07.89, 2 Norway Three 7:11.01, 3 Greece 7:11.15, 4 Egypt 7:18.82, 5 Ireland (M Maher) 7:24.05. Repechage (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals) 1 Italy 7:08.05; 6 Ireland 7:30.00.

Women

Single Scull – Heat Three (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to repechages): 1 Serbia (I Obradovic) 7:29.83, 2 Ireland (S Puspure) 7:34.28; 3 Norway (T Gjoertz) 7:34.70, 4 Lithuania (D Vistartaite) 7:58.31, 5 Austria (L Farthofer) 8:01.66.

Lightweight Single Scull – Heat One (Winner to A Final; rest to Repechage): 1 Britain (K Twyman) 7:49.69; 2 Ireland (C Lambe) 7:54.91, 3 Austria Two 8:00.09, 4 Croatia 8:00.85.

ROWING: The Ireland lightweight men’s double took a bronze medal and Sanita Puspure finished fifth in the women’s single on the first day of A Finals at the Memorial Paolo D’Aloja international regatta in Piediluco in Italy today.

This was a first medal in a senior event for the lightweight double of Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny, who hope to represent Ireland at next month’s Olympic Qualifier in Lucerne. They did it by maintaining a high rate through a race which was won by Nuno Mendes and Pedro Fraga of Portugal – a crew which qualified for London 2012 by finishing 10th at last year’s World Championships.

Puspure, who is also targeting the Qualifiers, finished third in a group of three which disputed third in the closing stages of her race, with a second covering all three crews. The race was won by Serbia’s Iva Obradovic.

Justin Ryan finished fourth in the A Final of the lightweight single scull. The race was won by Lorenzo Bertini of Italy.

Memorial Paolo D’Aloja International Regatta, Piediluco, Italy

Day Two - Saturday (Selected Results)

Men

Lightweight Double Scull – A Final: 1 Portugal (N Mendes, P Fraga) 6:30.21, 2 Spain 6:32.14, 3 Ireland (M O’Donovan, N Kenny) 6:34.26.

Lightweight Single Scull – A Final: 1 Italy Two (L Bertini) 7:11.50, 2 Italy (L La Padula) 7:14.10, 3 Egypt (AM Massoud) 7:18.50; 4 Ireland (J Ryan) 7:24.39.

Women

Single Scull – A Final: 1 Serbia (I Obradovic) 7:36.94, 2 Lithuania (D Vistartaite) 7:42.03, 3 Sweden (F Svensson) 7:45.34); 4 Serbia (I Filipovic) 7:46.18, 5 Ireland (S Puspure) 7:46.20.