Ireland’s young lightweight women’s double scull came very close to taking a medal at the European Rowing Championships in Portugal today. Greece were totally dominant in the A Final in Montemor-o-Velho, but Ireland’s Siobhan McCrohan (23) and Claire Lambe (20) looked set for at least a bronze medal until a late push by Germany. The German crew then caught a crab, and Poland clinched second, but as the Germans made a fine recovery the Irish could not regain their third place.

Earlier, Niall Kenny and Mark O’Donovan had finished fourth in the B Final of the men’s lightweight double scull, 10th overall.

European Championships, Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal, (Irish interest)

Men, Lightweight Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7-12): 1 Belgium 6:32.39, 2 Greece 6:34.34, 3 Norway 6:34.80, 4 Ireland (M O’Donovan, N Kenny) 6:39.46, 5 Hungary 6:40.40, 6 Czech Republic 6:40.70.

Women, Lightweight Double Sculls – A Final: 1 Greece (C Giazitzidou, A Tsiavou) 6:58.18, 2 Poland (M Kemnitz, A Renc) 7:06.16, 3 Germany (D Reimer, A Noske) 7:08.29, 4 Ireland (S McCrohan, C Lambe) 7:10.16, 5 Italy 7:11.42, 6 Spain 7:22.80.

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Ireland’s Siobhan McCrohan (23) and Claire Lambe (20) will compete in the A Final of the European Championships in Montemor-o-Velho in Portugal tomorrow. To qualify the Irish lightweight double scull needed to finish in the top two of their repechage this morning, and the Tribesmen/UCD combination duly obliged. They finished second to Poland, the silver medallists from last year’s World Championships, who led all the way down the course. McCrohan and Lambe stayed in touch all through and saw off a late challenge by Sweden.

The men’s lightweight double of Mark O’Donovan and Niall Kenny finished fifth in their A/B Semi-Final. The race had a surprising conclusion, as Slovenia ousted Greece to join Italy and France in the A Final, but the Ireland crew were not contenders and will compete in tomorrow’s B Final.

European Championships, Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal, (Irish interest)

Men, Lightweight Double Sculls – A/B Semi-Final (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Italy 6:33.85, 2 France 6:34.26,  3 Slovenia 6:35.76; 4 Greece 6:40.49, 5 Ireland (M O’Donovan, N Kenny) 6:45.20, 6 Belgium 6:48.92.

Women, Lightweight Double Sculls – Repechage Two (First Two to A Final): 1 Poland (M Kemnitz, A Renc) 7:20.87, 2 Ireland (S McCrohan, S Lambe) 7:24.46; 3 Sweden 7:26.71, 4 Netherlands 7:33.01, 5 Portugal 7:36.85

Niall Kenny and Mark O’Donovan produced a fast final 500 metres in the lightweight double scull repechage to make the A/B Semi-Finals at the European Championships in Portugal today. The Ireland crew had a disappointing heat, finishing last, but they made up for it with a remarkable win in the repechage.

European Championships, Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal, Day One (Irish interest):

Men, Lightweight Double Scull – Heat Four (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Final; rest to Repechages): 1 Greece 6:26.73, 2 Norway 6:27.62; 3 Russia 6:29.15, 4 Sweden 6:31.45, 5 Ireland (N Kenny, M O’Donovan) 6:34.70. Repechage (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals): 1 Ireland 7:12.11, 2 Czech Republic 7:12.11; 3 Russia 7:13.67, 4 Poland 7:16.57, 5 Bulgaria 7:29.05, 6 Finland 7:39.91.

Women, Lightweight Double Scull – Heat Two (First Directly to A Final; rest to Repechages): 1 Germany (D Reimer, A Noske) 7:05.55; 2 Ireland (C Lambe, S McCrohan) 7:09.42, 3 Italy 7:09.47, 4 France 7:09.81, 5 Poland 7:10.54, 6 Portugal 7:21.85.

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Ireland’s Claire Lambe and Siobhan McCrohan finished very well to take second place behind Germany in their heat of the lightweight double scull at the European Championships in Montemor-o-Velho in Portugal. Germany controlled the race from early on and took the one direct qualification spot in the A Final, but a battle developed for second place and Lambe and McCrohan beat off Italy and France for this spot.

The men’s lightweight double of Niall Kenny and Mark O’Donovan finished fifth and last in their heat, which was won by Greece, with Norway taking the second direct qualification spot for the A/B semi-finals. Both Irish crews must now compete in repechages.

European Championships, Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal, Day One (Irish interest):

Men, Lightweight Double Scull – Heat Four (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Final; rest to Repechages): 1 Greece 6:26.73, 2 Norway 6:27.62; 3 Russia 6:29.15, 4 Sweden 6:31.45, 5 Ireland (N Kenny, M O’Donovan) 6:34.70.

Women, Lightweight Double Scull – Heat Two (First  Directly to A Final; rest to Repechages): 1 Germany (D Reimer, A Noske) 7:05.55; 2 Ireland (C Lambe, S McCrohan) 7:09.42, 3 Italy 7:09.47, 4 France 7:09.81, 5 Poland 7:10.54, 6 Portugal 7:21.85.

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Mark Fangen-Hall, the coach of the Ireland eight which took bronze at the World University Rowing Championships in Szeged in Hungary last month, has paid tribute to UCD men Dave Neale and Finbar Manning, who won their places in a crew predominantly made up of the Queen’s University eight. “I have no doubt in my mind that without the efforts of the two UCD lads we wouldn’t have won the medal. They definitely made the boat go faster and they definitely made the crew tick.”

The crew are the Afloat Rowers of the Month for August.

Listen To The Full Interview on the Podcast Below

 

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Sheila Clavin of St Michael's Rowing Club in Limerick and Michael Maher of Dublin club Commercial came out on top at the 12th Annual Sculling Challenge in Belfast at the weekend. The challenge pits competitors from the Dublin, Cork and Limerick sculling ladders against representatives of the Belfast sculling league. 

Annual Sculling Challenge, Belfast, Saturday: Men – Heat One: 1 M Maher (Commercial, Dublin Sculling Ladder), 2 E Marron (Lady Victoria, Belfast Sculling League), 4l. Heat Two: 1 A Hurley (Bantry, Cork SL) row over. Final: 1 Maher, 2 Hurley, 5l

Women – Heat One: 1 S Clavin (St Michael’s, Limerick Sculling Ladder), 2 R Beringer (Belfast RC, Belfast Sculling League), 3l. Heat Two: 1 B Quinn (Commercial, Dublin SL), 2 M Piggott (Bantry, Cork SL) 1 ¼ l. B Final: 1 Beringer, 2 Piggott, easily. A Final: 1 Clavin, 2 Quinn, 4l.

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The Afloat Rowers of the Month for August are the Ireland eight which took a bronze medal at the World University Championships in Szeged in Hungary. The crew was assembled from the Queen’s University eight which won the Irish and British university championships, with the co-option of Finbar Manning and David Neale of University College, Dublin.

The crew was: David Neale, Jonathan Mitchell, Eoin Mac Domhnaill, Colin Williamson, Finbar Manning, Abdulrahman Mohamed, Marc Butler, James Graham and cox Andrew Tubman. The coach was Mark Fangen-Hall of Queen’s University.

 

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 2010. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2010 champions list grow.

Listen to an extensive interview with the coach of the Ireland crew, Mark Fangen-Hall below

With the sculling championships coming up in September, there was great interest in the Division 1 and 2 competitions at the Limerick Regatta over the weekend with Skibbereen competing well to hold their Grand League top table position.

In Division 1 of the men's race, with 20 scullers declared, Sam Lynch of St Michael's, Limerick pipped  Richard Coakley of Skibbereen in the heats by 0.48 seconds . The two former lightweight internationals battled it out in the final with Coakley exacting revenge in fine style putting Lynch into third spot with Cian Pidgeon, an intermediate from Castleconnell, putting in a fine performance to clinch second place.

In the men's Division 1 4x- race Skibbereen again showed the strength of their junior squad as they beat their club seniors and St Michael's seniors into second and third spot respectively.   St Michael's took the Division 1 pairs from the aspiring intermediates from Cappoquin Rowing Club.

The double sculls competition was also keenly contested with several strong Skibbereen  doubles in the heats but is was  their juniors, fresh back from their silver medal at the European Junior Championships, who took first ahead of their club seniors with Clonmel and St Michaels taking second and third spot.

The Division 2 men's single sculls race, with 34 boats, was made up of novice, junior B and Junior 16 scullers. After the time trials it came down to the top four in Final A which was won by Prenderville from Muckross by 13 seconds from Lee RC, followed by Skibbereen and Workman's, who dead-heated for third place.

The women's Division 1 final was taken by Gillian Hosford of Skibbereen from a young Kate O'Brien from St Michaels.    In the Division 2 final Corcoran-O'Hare (Shandon) beat Marie Piggott (Bantry) by a mere 0.43 seconds in a close finish.

In the Junior 14 and 15 ranks there was a massive entry of enthusiastic young rowers with the honours spread fairly widely around the clubs of Galway, Carrick on Shannon, Cork, Carlow, and Athlone. It was good to see new club Colaiste Chairáin from Croom in County Limerick show that, with ambition and hard work, you can get a rowing programme off the ground.

While the regatta entries were mainly Munster based, clubs from all four provinces were represented, reflecting an appetite, despite the traditional holiday season, for a serious August regatta in preparation for the small boat National Championships in September.

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Turlough Hughes finished fourth in the B Final of the men’s single sculls at the World Junior Championships in Racice in the Czech Republic this morning. Portugal’s Tome Perdigao won a battle with Serbia’s Alexsandar Filipovic at the head of the field, while Hughes lost out for third to Lithuania’s Zygimantas Galisanskis. The Irishman’s performance gave him 10th overall at the Championships.

Junior World Championships, Racice, Czech Republic. Day Four (Irish interest)

Men’s Single Scull – B Final (Places 7-12): 1 Portugal (T Perdigao) 7:17.15, 2 Serbia (A Filipovic) 7:19.04, 3 Lithuania (Z Galisanskis) 7:19.13, 4 Ireland (T Hughes) 7:20.51, 5 Croatia 7:21.58, 6 Estonia 7:25.10

Turlough Hughes finished fifth in the semi-final of the men’s single scull at the World Junior Championships in Racice, Czech Republic. The race was won by the reigning world champion, Felix Bach of Germany, with Jakub Podrazil of the Czech Republic second. Andrew Campbell of the United States took the third A Final qualification place. Hughes is now destined for tomorrow’s B Final, which determines places seven to 12.

World Junior Championships, Racice, Czech Republic, Day Three (Irish interest)

Men’s Single Scull, Semi-Final Two (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Germany (F Bach) 7:42.56, 2 Czech Republic (J Podrazil) 7:46.36, 3 United States (A Campbell) 7:46.78; 4 Estonia (J Laos) 7:54.18, 5 Ireland (T Hughes) 7:57.90, 6 Croatia (B Gardijan) 8:12.01.

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