Entered in a field representing the cream of women's junior rowing from eleven European countries, the Galway girl was drawn in heat-2 where whe would be faced with the highly regarded British girl, Rachael Gamble-Flint.
Lisa stamped her authority from the off, taking a length from the French girl Helene by 500m. Gamble-Flint, who had started poorly, was now into her stride and attacking with a vengence. She closed to within 3sec of Lisa by 1000m and 2sec by 1500m, but could not sustain the challenge, the Galway girl maintaining a 3sec, 1 1/2 length, lead by the line.
The heat time, 8:23sec was the fastest of the three heats by over 15sec.
The final was represented by Ireland, Britain, Germany, Slovakia and Romania.
One of the two Germans, Arnold, made her mark from the off and had a length advantage by 500m. However, her gamble began to fail immediately thereafter as Dilleen passed the half-way mark with a 2sec advantage. However the race was far from over as the British girl now took up pursuit, and got to within a 1/2length of Dilleen by 1500m.
Again, Dilleen dug deep and rebuffed the challenge of the big British girl and went on to cross the line with a length and a half to spare.
On the second day of the regatta, Lisa Dilleen teamed up with Laura D'Urso of City of Derry for the Double-Sculls event. The competition hailed from Ireland, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Switzerland and Slovenia. The British withdrew their entry.
Though these girls had raced for Ireland in the "Coupe", they have never, by their own admission, had a better row together. There is not much to relate about this race except to state that they powered off the line, leaving their closest challengers, the Germans 3sec adrift at 500m, 9sec by 1000m, and they basically strolled home
thereafter, winning by 12sec (5 lengths), and winding down.
Coach Gearoid Mitchell expressed satisfaction in the performance, happy that both Lisa and Laura can acquit themselves well on a truly competitive world stage.
Eyes must now be looking toward the World Junior championships in Brive, France, in August.
Our photos above shows Lisa Dilleen, Tribesmen RC, & Laura D'Urso, City of Derry RC, Winners, Women's Junior Double Scull, Munich (and below) Rachael Gamble-Flint (GB), Lisa Dilleen (IRL), Marie-Catherine Arnold (GER), Women's Junior Single Scull
