Paul O’Donovan and Holly Nixon won their single sculls semi-finals and moved confidently into the A Finals of the World Rowing Junior Championships at Dorney Lake in England today.

O’Donovan, as has been his pattern in his two races so far, did not make the decisive move until the final quarter. When he drove for the line he had to fight it out with Andrii Mykhailov of Ukraine, and the Skibbereen man won this battle.

Nixon also won her semi-final in much the same way as she had won her heat - with a procession from the start which left the others following well behind.

World Rowing Junior Championships, Dorney Lake, England (Irish interest)

Men

Junior Single Scull – Semi-Final Two: 1 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:04.71, 2 Ukraine (A Mykhailov) 7:05.18, 3 Switzerland (A Maillefer) 7:06.03; 4 Zimbabwe 7:06.20, 5 Azerbaijan 7:11.51, 6 Belarus 7:16.93. Afloat.ie

Women

Junior Single Scull - Semi-final One (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Ireland (H Nixon) 7:44.21, 2 Latvia (E Gulbe) 7:49.16, 3 Italy (E Coletti) 7:51.31; 4 Japan 7:54.79, 5 Bulgaria 7:58.44, 6 Belgium 8:03.52. Afloat.ie

Paul O’Donovan won his  quarter-final at the World Rowing Junior Championships at Dorney Lake in England today. The Skibbereen man, who won his heat on Thursday, again showed cool intent in the closing stages of this race, passing long-time leader Alexandros Dafnis of Greece and holding off a late challenge by the Greek. The third A/B Semi-Final place went to Shinji Miyazaki of Japan.

World Rowing Junior Championships, Dorney Lake, England (Irish interest)

Men, Junior Single Sculls – Quarter-Final Four (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to C/D Semi-Finals): 1 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:09.11, 2 Greece (A Dafnis) 7:11.18, 3 Japan (S Miyazaki) 7:18.41; 4 South Africa 7:18.86, 5 Chile 7:28.28, 6 Russia 7:34.44.

Holly Nixon dominated her first race at the World Junior Rowing Championships this morning. The Enniskillen woman led down the course in the second heat of the women’s single scull and had over 10 seconds to spare over second-placed Juliette Jeannet of Switzerland, who took the second direct qualification place for the A/B semi-finals.

World Junior Rowing Championships, Dorney Lake, Britain (Irish interest)

Women

Single Scull – Heat Two (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (H Nixon) 8:45.23, 2 Switzerland (J Jeannet) 8:55.51; 3 Belgium 9:04.72, 4 Slovenia 9:04.80, 5 Venezeula 10:06.41.

Bann crew Chris Black and Joel Cassells won a second gold medal for Ireland in the junior men’s pair at he Coupe de la Jeunesse, a European junior rowing tournament in Ottensheim in Austria today, having achieved the same feat on Saturday.

The junior women’s double of Katie Cromie (Portora) and Shelly Dineen (Skibbereen) took silver today to add to yesterday’s gold medal, and junior men’s double of Matthew Monteith and Adrian Sheehan were third. Ireland’s junior men’s four and junior women’s quadruple scull also took bronze.

Coupe de la Jeunesse, Ottensheim, Austria (Selected Results, Irish interest)

Saturday

Men, Junior Four – A Final: 3 Ireland (C Egan, H Millar, F Tolan, L Seaman) 6:22.34.

Junior Pair – A Final: 1 Ireland (J Cassells, C Black) 6:48.51, 2 Hungary 6:52.42.

Junior Double Scull – 1 Italy 6:36.68. 2 Ireland (M Monteith, A Sheehan) 6:3805.

Women, Junior Double – A Final: 1 Ireland (K Cromie, M Dineen) 7:24.75, 2 Hungary 7:27.29.

Sunday

Men

Junior Four – A Final: 1 Spain 6:12.56, 2 Ireland (Egan, Millar, Tolan, Seaman) 6:16.50

Junior Pair – A Final: 1 Ireland (J Cassells, C Black) 6:50.15, 2 Hungary 6:55.20.

Junior Double Scull – A Final: 1 Italy 6:42.16, 2 Britain 6:44.42, 3 Ireland (Monteith, Sheehan) 6:44.70.

Women

Junior Quadruple – Final: 1 Britain 7:03.54; 3 Ireland (R Shorten, K O’Brien, H Shinnick, B Jacques) 7:06.87.

Junior Double – A Final: 1 Hungary 7:26.87, 2 Ireland (K Cromie, M Dineen) 7:30.11

Ireland’s men’s pair of Joel Cassells and Chris Black and women’s double of Katie Cromie and Shelly Dineen both won on the first day of the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Austria, a European tournament for juniors. The men’s double scull of Matthew Monteith and Adrian Sheehan was second and the men’s four third.

The Afloat Rowers of the Month for July are the UCD men’s senior eight which brought back the Big Pot to the college for the first time since 1973 at the National Rowing Championships. The big crew of Simon Craven, Peter Grogan, Colm Pierce (the club captain), David Neale, Finbar Manning, Sean Jacob, Gearoid Duane and stroke Tom Doyle were coxed by Jenny Lynch and coached by Pat McDonagh. They were clear winners over NUIG/Grainne Mhaol on the day and are worthy winners of the Afloat Rowers of the Month.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times, President of Rowing Ireland Anthony Dooley 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 2011. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2011 champions list grow.

Ireland successfully defended their Junior Women's title at the Home International Regatta in Scotland on Saturday. However, England took the other three categories, and Ireland could only finish fourth in the men's senior ranks and third in the women's. The junior men finished second. 

Home International Regatta, Saturday:

Overall – Men, Senior: 1 England, 2 Wales, 3 Scotland, 4 Ireland. Junior: 1 England, 2 Ireland, 3 Wales.

Women, Senior: 1 England, 2 Scotland, 3 Ireland. Junior: 1 Ireland, 2 England, 3 Scotland.

Ireland’s Lisa Dilleen finished 10th overall in the women’s single scull at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Amsterdam this morning. The 20-year-old Galway women led in the early stages of the B Final (places seven to 12) but faded back as Australia, the Ukraine and Greece made their moves. Greece’s Aikaterina Nikolaidou was a clear winner at the end, with Ukraine and Australia in second and third and Dilleen fourth.

Claire Lambe and Sarah Dolan finished fifth in their B Final of the lightweight double scull, 11th overall. Belarus won by leading from early on and not letting the chasing group of Romania, Canada and Austria truly threaten them. Ireland twice broke into this group in the second half of the race, but Austria re-asserted its hold on fourth at the finish.

Last year at these Championships, Dolan and Lambe finished eighth and Dilleen ninth.

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Amsterdam, Day Five (Irish Interest)

Women

Lightweight Double Scull – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Belarus 7:10.11, 2 Romania 7:14.48, 3 Canada 7:15.90, 4 Austria 7:17.62, 5 Ireland (S Dolan, C Lambe) 7:18.40, 6 Italy 7:30.37.

Single Scull – B Final: 1 Greece 7:34.99, 2 Ukraine 7:38.17, 3 Australia 7:39.57, 4 Ireland (L Dilleen) 7:47.20, 5 Hungary 7:49.06, 6 Denmark 8:04.73.

Ireland were pipped on the line by Britain in the B Final of the lightweight quadruple sculls at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Amsterdam. Ireland took the lead within metres of the finish only for Britain to come through and win by seven hundredths of a second. Ireland’s crew of Shane O’Driscoll, Niall Kenny, Peter Hanily and Justin Ryan thus finish eighth overall.

Jonathan Mitchell won a battle for fourth with Switzerland’s Jerome Voelke in the C Final of the lightweight single scull, placing him 16th overall. At the head of the field, Cristian Gainza Lein of Chile held off the late challenge of Kamal Mammadov of Azerbaijan, with Oskar Russberg of Sweden third.

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Amsterdam - Day Four (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Quadruple Scull – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Britain 5:55.87, 2 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, N Kenny, P Hanily, J Ryan) 5:55.94, 3 Spain 5:59.67, 4 Netherlands 6:01.04, 5 Austria 6:02.97, 6 Turkey 6:20.13.

Lightweight Single Scull – C Final (Places 13-18): 1 Chile 7:14.52, 2 Azerbaijan 7:15.39, 3 Sweden 7:15.65, 4 Ireland (J Mitchell) 7:22.21, 5 Switzerland 7:25.61, 6 Italy 7:53.08

Women

Lightweight Double Scull – Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Greece 7:03.80, 2 Spain 7:05.59, 3 Netherlands 7:06.49; 4 Romania 7:12.98, 5 Austria 7:14.20, 6 Ireland (S Dolan, C Lambe) 7:14.86.

Single Scull – Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final); 1 Serbia (I Filipovic) 7:36.42, 2 Estonia (K Pajusalu) 7:36.89, 3 Azerbaijan (I Angelova) 7:36.94; 4 Ukraine 7:38.55, 5 Ireland (L Dilleen) 7:43.02, 6 Denmark 8:14.00.