#IrishRowingChampionships: Claire Lambe and John Keohane won the men’s and women’s senior single sculls titles at the Irish Rowing Championships at Farran Woods in Cork today. Both had hard battles before crossing the line as winners.

Lambe had a disappointing start and saw Sinéad Jennings take and hold the lead until halfway. Lambe came back and led by 1500 metres, but Jennings mounted challenge after challenge.

Keohane took the lead early on but had to battle to retain it. Eimantas Grigalius, a World Junior Champion in 2003, drove hard a the Corkman through the closing 500 metres, but Keohane, rating below his opponent, retained his lead – and the title he won last year.

There was great excitement in the closing stages of the men’s novice coxed four. UCD’s lead was eaten away and then completely lost to Queen’s University, who won by .92 of a second. UCD also lost out in the women’s intermediate coxed four to a strong St Michael’s crew of Hannah McCarthy, Emily Tormey, Kate O’Brien, Hanah O’Sullivan and cox Conor McGowan.

The men’s intermediate pair and the women’s junior pair and men’s junior double sculls were convincingly won by UCC, Portora and Shandon respectively.

Irish Rowing Championships, National Rowing Centre, Farran Woods, Cork – Day Three (Selected Results, Finals)

Men

Four – Novice, coxed: 1 Queen’s 7:49.87, 2 UCD 7:50.79, 3 UCC 7:55.25.

Pair – Intermediate: 1 UCC 8:13.04, 2 Portora 8:36.82, 3 Bann 8:42.84.

Sculling, Double – Junior: 1 Shandon (J Casey, A Harrington) 7:55.13, 2 Skibbereen 8:13.06, 3 Lee 8:19.07.

Single – Senior: 1 Lee Valley (J Keohane) 8:00.96, 2 Three Castles (E Grigalius) 8:03.83, 3 Portadown (S McKeown) 8:21.55.

Women

Four, Intermediate, coxed: 1 St Michael’s 8:10.43, 2 UCD C 8:18.36, 3 UCD A 8:28.10.

Pair – Junior: 1 Portora (D Maguire, P Mulligan) 9:04.90, 2 Muckross 9:16.42, 3 Shannon 9:19.32.

Sculling, Single – Senior: 1 UCD (C Lambe) 9:09.20, 2 St Michael’s (S Jennings) 9:10.31, 3 Three Castles (H Walshe) 9:28.57.

# ROWING WORLD CUP: Ireland’s Claire Lambe finished fifth and Paul O’Donovan sixth in their lightweight single sculls finals this morning at the World Cup regatta at Dorney Lake. In a fast race, O’Donovan stayed in contention for bronze until the closing stages: Pedro Fraga of Portugal won, with Steffen Jensen second. His fellow Dane Andrej Bendtsen made a late charge to deny Duncan Grant of New Zealand bronze.

Lambe’s race belonged to Michaela Taupe-Traer (38). The experienced Austrian took gold ahead of Leonie Pless of Germany, with Brazil’s Fabiana Beltrame making heavy weather of taking bronze despite having the favoured lane six. The lanes had been reallocated because of winds. Lambe and Ruth Walczak of Britain had disputed third with Beltrame through the middle stages of the race.

World Cup Regatta, Dorney Lake, Day Three (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 Portugal (P Fraga) 6:57.02, 2 Denmark One (S Jensen) 6:59.80, 3 Denmark Two (A Bendtsen) 7:00.24; 4 New Zealand 7:00.69, 5 Germany Two 7:04.66, 6 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:06.69.

Women

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 Austria (M Taupe-Traer) 7:36.62, 2 Germany (L Pless) 7:44.98, 3 Brazil (F Beltrame) 7:46.46; 4 Britain 7:47.40, 5 Ireland (C Lambe) 7:55.06, 6 Hong Kong 7:58.78.

# ROWING WORLD CUP: Claire Lambe in the lightweight single sculls and the double scull of Leonora Kennedy and Monika Dukarska both won their repechages to progress to A Finals at the World Cup regatta at Dorney Lake today.

Lambe had missed out on direct qualification through her heat when finishing third, but she made certain of an A Final place by leading from the early stages in her second-chance race. Ka Man Lee from Hong Kong was the only serious test for Lambe. She finished second and also qualified for the final.

The double had a very satisfying victory in only their second race as a crew. They were pressed at the end by Finland, but led through all four quarters.

World Cup Regatta, Dorney Lake, Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Single Sculls - Heat Two (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Final; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:13.89, 2 New Zealand (D Grant) 7:17.37; 3 Hong Kong 7:27.67, 4 Korea 7:28.71, 5 Brazil Two 7:30.92, 6 Japan 7:32.49.

Lightweight Double Sculls – Heat One: 1 Britain (R Chambers, P Chambers) 6:29.86.

Single Sculls – Heat Three: Britain (A Campbell) 7:07.03.

Arms and Shoulders Single Sculls – Heat One (First Directly to Final; rest to Repechage): 4 Ireland (T Kelly) 6:31.23.

Women

Double Sculls – Heat Two (First Two Directly to A Final; rest to Repechage): 1 Britain (F Houghton, V Meyer-Laker) 6:59.96, 2 China Two (D Xu, F Pan) 7:03.91; 3 Ireland (M Dukarska, L Kennedy) 7:15.68, 4 Korea 7:18.48. Repechage (Two to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Ireland 7:12.18, 2 Finland 7:12.92; 3 China Three 7:16.23, 4 Korea 7:18.27, 5 China One 7:32.84.

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat Two (First Two Directly to A Final; rest to Repechage): 1 Brazil (F Beltrame) 7:54.85, 2 Britain (R Walczak) 7:59.13; 3 Ireland (C Lambe) 8:07.80, 4 Paraguay 8:29.68, 5 Hong Kong 8:34.62. Repechage (Two to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Ireland (Lambe) 8:05.22, 2 Hong Kong One 8:07.29; 3 Paraguay 8:18.51, 4 Austria Two 8:23.09, 5 Singapore 8:28.71, 6 Hong Kong 8:35.40.

# ROWING WORLD CUP: Paul O’Donovan gave Ireland lift-off at the World Cup Regatta at Dorney Lake this morning. The 19-year-old UCD student, making his World Cup debut, won his heat of the lightweight single sculls to qualify directly for the Semi-Finals. Duncan Grant of New Zealand, the red-hot favourite, took the second qualification place.

Claire Lambe will have to travel the repechage route after a third-place finish in her heat of the lightweight single sculls. With Fabiane Beltrame of Brazil winning well, direct qualification for the A Final rested on taking the second place. Ruth Walczak of Britain grabbed her chance.

Tom Kelly finished fourth in the heat of the Arms and Shoulders single sculls.

World Cup Regatta, Dorney Lake, Day One (Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Single Sculls - Heat Two (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Final; rest to Repechage): 1 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:13.89, 2 New Zealand (D Grant) 7:17.37; 3 Hong Kong 7:27.67, 4 Korea 7:28.71, 5 Brazil Two 7:30.92, 6 Japan 7:32.49.

Arms and Shoulders Single Sculls – Heat One (First Directly to Final; rest to Repechage): 4 Ireland (T Kelly) 6:31.23.

Women

Lightweight Single Sculls – Heat Two (First Two Directly to A Final; rest to Repechage): 1 Brazil (F Beltrame) 7:54.85, 2 Britain (R Walczak) 7:59.13; 3 Ireland (C Lambe) 8:07.80, 4 Paraguay 8:29.68, 5 Hong Kong 8:34.62.

#ROWING – After an intense weekend of international competition for Irish rowers Sanita Puspure finished fifth in the A Final of the single scull at the World Cup Regatta in Belgrade. Puspure tasted this level of competition in the single scull for the first time. Claire Lambe finished fifth in the A Final of the lightweight single sculls at the World Cup.

John Keohane Won the Men's Single Scull at Ghent Rowing Regatta but he was only one of a collection of Irish winners.

Chris Black and Joel Cassells did themselves no harm in the hunt for selection on the Ireland team for the World Junior Championships when they won their final at Munich Junior Regatta.

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