#Rowing: Paul O’Donovan won his heat of the single sculls in an excellent time of seven minutes 7.8 seconds in glorious sunshine at Cork Regatta today. The Skibbereen man had 2.7 seconds to spare over heavyweight oarsman Ronan Byrne of UCC. Gary O’Donovan wont the previous heat in the third-fastest time, with Sam McKeown not far behind, setting the fourth fastest time overall.

Lisa Dilleen of Cork Boat Club was the fastest women’s single sculler in the heats, with Denise Walsh of Skibbereen second.

#Rowing: The fastest crew of the day at the Skibbereen head of the River at the Marina in Cork today was the UCC men’s senior eight. They covered the course in 10 minutes and four seconds, 12 seconds ahead of the Skibbereen senior eight.

 The Shandon/UCC senior quadruple also set a good time of 10 minutes and 17 seconds, while UCC’s men’s senior four took 10 minutes and 36 seconds.

 Shane O’Connell of UCD was the fastest single sculler and Ronan Byrne of UCC, an intermediate, also came in under 12 minutes for the slightly shortened course. Barry O’Flynn of Cork Boat Club was the fastest junior – he was timed at exactly 12 minutes.  

 Cork Boat Club’s women’s senior four were the fastest women’s crew, completing the course in 11 minutes 44 seconds. Lisa Dilleen, now competing for Boat Club, was the fastest women’s single sculler, taking just 13 minutes and five seconds. Georgia O’Brien of Kenmare was the fastest junior, in a good time of 13:51.  

#ROWING: Ireland’s Lisa Dilleen and Leonora Kennedy finished second in the B Final of the women’s pair at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam today, placing them eighth overall. Russia’s Liana Gorgodze and Elizaveta Tikhanova, the second slowest of the crews in the semi-finals, took this race by storm. They led all the way down the course despite constant attempts to head them by Ireland, the one crew which mounted a consistent challenge.

World Rowing Championships, Day Seven (Irish interest, selected results)

Women

Pair – B Final (Places 7 to 13): 1 Russia (L Gorgodze, E Tikhanova) 7:06.08, 2 Ireland (L Kennedy, L Dilleen) 7:09.20, 3 Serbia 7:10.61, 4 Canada 7:12.15, 5 Ukraine 7:18.40, 6 Czech Republic 7:19.72.

#ROWING: Leonora Kennedy and Lisa Dilleen won on their first outing as a pair at an international regatta this morning. The newly-formed Ireland combination came home ahead of a field of Italian crews at the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja in Piediluco in Italy. Single sculler Sanita Puspure and the Ireland double of Eimear Moran and Monika Dukarska had earlier finished second and third respectively in their finals.

#ROWING: The newly-formed women’s pair of Lisa Dilleen and Leonora Kennedy were outstanding in racing on the final day of the Ireland Trials at the National Rowing Centre. Their percentage of projected World Championship gold medal winning time was an excellent 88.25. The new lightweight men’s pair of Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny and single scullers Paul O’Donovan and Sanita Puspure also breached 87 per cent. All these crews are set to represent Ireland this year.

On Saturday, in the Home International Trials, Eimantas Grigalius, the former world junior champion for Lithuania who now lives in Ireland, topped the rankings in the single sculls.

Ireland Trials, National Rowing Centre, Cork

Saturday (Home International Trials)

Men

Pair – Senior: 1 Buckley/Coughlan 7:52.57 (74.06), 2 Rawlinson/Brett 7:53.86 (73.86), 3 Deere/Corcoran 7:57.32 (73.33).

Lightweight Pair: Keene/Breen 7:48.69 (74.68), 2 Murphy/McKenna 7:49.77 (74.5)

Junior Pair: 1 Browne/O’Connor 7:54.10 (73.82), 2 Higgins/Higgins 7:55.62 (73.59), 3 Coyne/McCarthy 7:57.33 (73.32).

Single Sculls – Senior: 1 E Grigalius 7:51.56 (78.46), 2 D Neale 7:59.09 (77.23), 3 S McKeown 8:04.84 (76.31).

Lightweight Single Sculls – Senior: N Duncan 8:21.96 (75.70), 2 C Murphy 8:41.5 (72.78), 3 S Toland 8:49.20 (71.81)

Junior Single Scull: 1 D Synott 8:04.76 (76.33), 2 S Dennehy 8:11.55 (75.27), 3 S O’Sullivan 8:12.87 (75.07).

Women

Pair - Senior: 1 Lonergan/Ryan 8:47.30 (73.58), 2 O’Brien/McCarthy 8:48.73 (73.38), 3 Bracken/Kelly 8:59.77 (71.88).

Lightweight Pair – Senior: 1 Leahy/Crowe 8:36.85 (77.78), 2 Wickham/Judge 8:51.01 (75.70).

Junior Pair: Connor/Hickey 8:44.08 (74.03), 2 Davis/O’Dwyer 8:51.97 (72.94), 3 O’Keeffe/Nagle 8:55.28 (72.49).

Lightweight Single Sculls – Senior: 1 E Desmond 9:18.30 (74.87), 2 O Holden 9:40.27 (72.04), 3 A Bulman 9:43.64 (71.62).

Junior Single Scull: 1 A Rodger 9:03.29 (73.99), 2 S Murphy 9:03.99 (73.9), 3 M McLaughlin 9:05.29 (73.72).

Sunday

(Per Centages Based On Senior Times)

Race One: 1 B Keohane, D Keohane (junior pair) 7:34.12 (81.04), 2 P O’Donovan (lightweight single, under-23) 7:37.78 (87.38), 3 L Kennedy, L Dilleen (women’s senior pair) 7:40.89 (88.25), 4 O Hayes, C Jennings (women’s lightweight double) 7:51.38 (85.71).

Race Two: 1 S Dolan (women’s lightweight single) 8:50.00 (83.02), S Horgan (women’s lightweight single, under-23) 8:51.63 (82.76), 3 E Barry (jun women’s single) 8:52.99 (79.74), 4 E Hegarty (jun women’s single) 9:06.59 (77.75)

Race Three: 1 J Ryan (lightweight single) 7:53.65 (84.45), 2 Women’s Junior Double (J English, E Lambe) 8:02.67 (81.63), 3 S Puspure (women’s single) 8:05.73 (87.5), 4 Women’s Junior Double (O’Keeffe) 8:16.75 (79.32).

Race Four: 1 Lightweight Pair (M O’Donovan, N Kenny) 7:15.87 (87.18), 2 Women’s Four (M O’Neill, E Tormey, B O’Brien, A Keogh) 7:31.87 (84.09), 3 D Neale (men’s single) 7:56.54 (81.84), 4 J Keohane (men’s single) 7:59.85 (81.28).

Race Five: 1 Men’s Double (S McKeown, D Quinlan) 7:12.90 (82.93), 2 Men’s Double (Oliver) 7:17.73 (82.01), 3 Men’s Pair (R O’Callaghan, R Bennett) 7:28.26 (82.10), 4 Men’s Pair (K Neville, M Pukelis) 7:31.51 (81.5).

Race Six: 1 Junior Quadruple (Begley) 6:58.49 (79.09), 2 Lightweight Double (C Beck) 7:11.04 (84.91), 3 Junior Double (D O’Malley, C Carmody) 7:12.49 (83.01), 4 Junior Double (Mulvaney) 7:19.14 (81.75).

Race Seven (Pararowing Crews, 1,000m): 1 LTA1x (O’Hara) 2:09.42 (77.27), 2 TA1x (O’Brien) 2:45.40 (81.62), 3 AS1x (O’Doherty) 2:48.06 (81.82), 4 AS1x (Kelly) 3:09.52 (72.55).

Two womens' boats will compete for Olympic qualification, another is seeking Paralympics qualification and two boats are entered in non-Olympic world championship events.

The boats with ambition for Olympic qualification are the lightweight double scull of Claire Lambe and Siobhan McCrohan and the openweight women's double scull of Sanita Puspure and Lisa Dilleen.

With lightweight double sculls being the only boat class for lightweight women, the entry of 26 boats will generate intense competition for the eight Olympic places on offer this year. Lambe and McCrohan, who came fourth at last year's European championships, will be competitive for one of these Olympic places, but it will be very tight with any mistakes or errors making a dramatic difference in final results.

Similarly the openweight women's double scull has eight Olympic places on offer with 19 entries. The newly formed double scull is a partnership between Dilleen, a 20 year old from Galway, who came fourth in the World Junior Rowing Championships two years ago; and Sanita Puspure, a recently naturalised Irish citizen from Latvia. In 2003, Puspure was a bronze medallist for Latvia at under 23 level. The Irish pair  finished fifth at the first World Cup earlier this summer in Munich, followed by an eleventh place in Lucerne.

For the first time, Ireland has a boat attempting qualification for next year's London  Paralympic games in the form of a mixed coxed four crew in the legs, trunk, and arms (LTA) category. There are 16 entries with 8 qualifying. Ireland's boat finished fifth at the 2010 World Rowing Championships, and whilst the number of entrants has increased this year, the crew have a good chance of making the first eight to qualify.

Performance director Martin McElroy, an Olympic gold medal winning coach with the British team at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, said today, "Only our adaptive athletes went to the 2010 World Rowing championships. For all the others competing, it's a first time experience, and in an Olympic qualification year that's a big ask."

"When I started in my role as performance director in 2009, I knew we were missing a generation of athletes.  A look at the age demographic of our team confirms that. However I am very pleased that we have a young ambitious group of athletes who are willing to take it on and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that one or more of the boats may qualify. It's a big ask but it's not impossible. Added to that, we have a Paralympic boat seeking qualification for the first time"

The men's lightweight quadruple scull contains the same line-up that won a silver medal at the 2010 World Under-23 Rowing Championships. A strategic decision was taken to favour the non-Olympic boat class for these young athletes in order to continue their international development.

Performance director, Martin McElroy explained, "The choice was to risk immersing these young athletes in the cauldron of Olympic lightweight class boats which are amongst the most competitive classes in the Olympic regatta and create a very negative experience early in their careers, or take a more measured approach to their development and transition to the senior level through the non-Olympic boat classes."

"It was clear to us that we did not have a boat that would be close to qualification at this time and we discussed this openly with the squad. With 34 entries and only 11 to qualify, I'm satisfied that we've taken the right decision. These young athletes can compete positively in the quadruple scull event and continue taking the steps necessary to transition successfully from under 23 to senior."

Sarah Dolan a 21-year old Trinity college engineering student races in the women's lightweight single scull, an event with 22 entries.