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Displaying items by tag: World Under23

# RowerOfTheYear: Paul O’Donovan is the Afloat Rower of the Year for 2013. The scholarship student at UCD raced to a bronze medal in the lightweight single sculls the World Under-23 Championships at Linz-Ottensheim in Austria in July. The previous month the 19-year-old had made his mark as a senior international when the reached the A Final at the World Cup Regatta at Dorney Lake, the Olympic venue, finishing sixth.

For these feats the Skibbereen man won the Afloat Rower of the Month Awards for June and July. He is a worthy recipient of the Afloat Rower of the Year Award for 2013.

Rower of the Year: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine.

Published in Rower of the Year

#World Under-23Rowing: Paul O’Donovan took a bronze medal for Ireland at the World Under-23 Championships in Linz in Austria this morning. The 19-year-old Skibbereen man, who is a scholarship student at UCD, had a controlled race in the A Final of the lightweight single sculls. Andrew Campbell Jr of the United States was the strong leader from early on, while O’Donovan and eventual silver medallist Franciscus Goutier of the Netherlands stayed in the mix behind him. New Zealander Adam Ling did push to take bronze, but O’Donovan saw him off with his characteristic fast finish.

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day Five (Irish interest, selected results)

Men

Pair – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Netherlands 6:47.87, 2 Hungary 6:49.68, 3 Slovenia 6:49.83, 4 Ireland (S O’Connor, F McQuillan-Tolan) 7:00.93, 5 Ukraine 7:03.46, 6 Lithuania 7:07.13.

Lightweight Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Denmark 6:37.95, 2 Poland 6:40.97, 3 Lithuania 6:41.40, 4 Britain 6:44.76, 5 Norway 6:45.20, 6 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, G O’Donovan) 6:46.78.

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 United States (A Campbell Jr) 7:07.84, 2 Netherlands (F Goutier) 7:10.49, 3 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:11.67; 4 New Zealand 7:12.44, 5 Turkey 7:18.84, 6 Britain 7:20.54.

Women

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 Greece (A Nikolaidou) 7:58.12, 2 Belarus (A Kryvasheyenka) 8:02.79, 3 Japan (A Oishi) 8:06.68; 4 Belgium 8:09.10, 5 Austria 8:09.32, 6 Ireland (D Walsh) 8:14.47.

Published in Rowing

#WorldUnder-23Rowing: Denise Walsh finished sixth in the A Final of the lightweight single sculls at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Linz in Austria this morning. The Skibbereen woman and Belgium’s Eveline Peleman were not far off the pace at the back of the field in the first half of the race, but when Peleman moved away, Walsh struggled. The race was won by Aikaterini Nikolaidou of Greece.

Seán O’Connor and Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan finished fourth in the B Final of the men’s pair, 10th overall. The Netherlands were the premier crew throughout, and for most of the first half of the race Slovenia held second and Hungary and Ireland were in third and fourth. Hungary had a good second half and left Ireland behind and then caught and passed Slovenia at the finish, to take second.

In the men’s lightweight double sculls, Shane O’Driscoll and Gary O’Donovan finished sixth. Denmark won convincingly. Ireland looked a possibility for fourth, and 10th overall, but were passed by Lithuania and Britain in the second half of the race.

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day Five (Irish interest, selected results)

Men

Pair – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Netherlands 6:47.87, 2 Hungary 6:49.68, 3 Slovenia 6:49.83, 4 Ireland (S O’Connor, F McQuillan-Tolan) 7:00.93, 5 Ukraine 7:03.46, 6 Lithuania 7:07.13.

Lightweight Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Denmark 6:37.95, 2 Poland 6:40.97, 3 Lithuania 6:41.40, 4 Britain 6:44.76, 5 Norway 6:45.20, 6 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, G O’Donovan) 6:46.78.

Women

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 Greece (A Nikolaidou) 7:58.12, 2 Belarus (A Kryvasheyenka) 8:02.79, 3 Japan (A Oishi) 8:06.68; 4 Belgium 8:09.10, 5 Austria 8:09.32, 6 Ireland (D Walsh) 8:14.47.

Published in Rowing

#WorldUnder-23Rowing: The Ireland women’s four finished fourth at the World Under-23 Championships in Linz in Austria today. The heat was so intense at the scheduled race time – a reported 40 degrees on the water – that the race had to be postponed for an hour. The Irish, who are a new crew, were well up to the pace in the race until about 1400 metres into the 2,000. The crew of Emily Tormey, Ailish Sheehan, Aifric Keogh and Lisa Dilleen held third behind dominant Australia and second-placed Russia, the bronze medallists last year. But the Irish crew clipped a buoy and New Zealand passed them.  Australia took gold, Russia silver and New Zealand bronze.

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day Four (Irish interest, selected results)

Men

Four – B Final (places 7 to 11): 1 Croatia 6:14.55, 2 Lithuania 6:17.00, 3 Ireland (R Bennett, M Wray, J Mitchell, R O’Callaghan) 6: 19.24, 4 Norway 6:19.29. Britain did not start.

Pair - (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final) – Semi-Final One: 1 South Africa (D Hunt, V Breet) 6:46.15, 2 Greece (K Christomanos, A Dafnis) 6:49.16, 3 Serbia (M Vasic, R Deric) 6:49.47; 4 Hungary 6:50.31, 5 Ireland (S O’Connor, F McQuillan-Tolan) 6:59.77, 6 Lithuania 7:20.32.

Lightweight Double Sculls – (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final) – Semi-Final One: 1 Germany (M Moos, J Osborne) 6:36.55, 2 Italy (L Barbaro, S Molteni) 6:37.75, 3 Spain (J de Haz, J Zabala Artetxe) 6:37.88; 4 Poland 6:38.49, 5 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, G O’Donovan) 6:46.30, 6 Norway 6:48.13.

Lightweight Single Sculls – (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final) – Semi-Final One: 1 United States (A Campbell) 7:11.15, 2 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:12.58, 3 Britain (Z Lee-Green) 7:14.26; 4 Australia 7:22.67, 5 Italy 7:24.34, 6 Germany 7:28.69.

Single Sculls – D Final (places 19 to 24): 6 Ireland (A Boreham) 7:36.40.

Women

Four – A Final: 1 Australia (H Vermeersch, A Hagan, C Sutherland, L Stephan) 6:47.72, 2 Russia (T Afinogevova, E Tikhanova, A Tikhanova, A Zhukova) 6:53.92, 3 New Zealand (J Kearney, K Froude, K Walters, A Green) 6:53.97; 4 Ireland (E Tormey, A Sheehan, A Keogh, L Dilleen) 6:58.57, 5 Netherlands 7:02.00, 6 Poland 7:09.27.

Lightweight Single Sculls – (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final) – Semi-Finals Two: 1 Greece (A Nikolaidou) 7:54.92, 2 Austria (A Berger) 8:00.22, 3 Ireland (D Walsh) 8:00.28; 4 France 8:04.30, 5 Germany 8:11.25, 6 Cyprus 8:11.63.

Published in Rowing

#WorldUnder-23Rowing: Ireland’s Shane O’Driscoll and Gary O’Donovan finished third in their heat of the lightweight double sculls this morning at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Linz in Austria. France set the winning pace and Italy followed them into the second direct qualification place for the semi-finals. O’Driscoll and O’Donovan did not have the required fast first quarter, and despite competing hard in the middle stages the qualification place eluded them. They are now set for the repechages. 

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Day Two (Irish interest, selected results)

Men

Pair – (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage) – Heat Two: 1 Australia (A Moore, A Hill) 6:37.37, 2 Ireland (S O’Connor, F McQuillan-Tolan) 6:49.15; 3 Russia 6:54.42, 4 Venezuela 7:05.10, 5 United States 7:09.48, 6 Estonia 7:15.64.

Lightweight Double Sculls – (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage) – Heat Three: 1 France (D Piqueras, D Houin) 6:26.65, 2 Italy (L Barbaro, S Molteni) 6:31.96; 3 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, G O’Donovan) 6:37.40, 4 Russia 6:42.81, 5 Lithuania 7:05.01.

Women

Lightweight Single Sculls – (First Two Directly to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to Repechage) – Heat One: 1 Belgium (E Peleman) 7:46.06, 2 Ireland (D Walsh) 7:50.87; 3 Croatia 7:52.54, 4 Germany 8:00.47, 5 Israel 8:04.22, 6 Argentina 8:06.23.

Published in Rowing

Ireland’s men’s lightweight quadruple scull failed to join the two women’s crews in the semi-finals of the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Amsterdam. The crew of Shane O’Driscoll, Niall Kenny, Peter Hanily and Justin Ryan could only finish fifth in their repechage, where the top three qualified. Denmark and Switzerland headed the field, with Poland finishing well to take third. Britain were fourth and are set for the B Final alongside Ireland.

Lightweight single sculler Jonathan Mitchell finished third in his C/D semi-final and qualified for the C Final (places 13 to 18).

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

Men

Lightweight Quadruple Scull – Repechage Two (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to B Final): 1 Denmark 5:54.81, 2 Switzerland 5:56.16, 3 Poland 5:57.97; 4 Britain 6:00.23, 5 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, N Kenny, P Hanily, J Ryan) 6:04.17, 6 Austria 6:08.25.

Lightweight Single Scull – Quarter Final Four: 1 United States (A Campbell Jr) 7:11.51, 2 Greece (P Magdanis) 7:14.64, 3 Peru (R Leon Garcia) 7:20.45; 4 Ireland (J Mitchell) 7:33.62, 5 Iraq 7:40.79, 6 Armenia 8:00.14. C/D Semi-Final (First Three to C Final): 1 Chile 7:18.31, 2 Sweden 7:19.38, 3 Ireland (Mitchell) 7:19.99.

Women

Lightweight Double Scull – Repechage (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals): 1 Ireland (S Dolan, C Lambe) 7:24.04, 2 Romania 7:24.63, 3 Italy 7:26.92; 4 Czech Republic 7:35.46, 5 Tunisia 8:00.09.

Single Scull – Repechage (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals): 1 The Netherlands (N Beukers) 7:45.46, 2 Ireland (L Dilleen) 7:45.81, 3 Greece (A Nikolaidou) 7:52.71; 4 Latvia 8:06.32, 5 USA 8:11.64.

Published in Rowing

Ireland’s two women’s boats, the lightweight double scull and the single scull, will both compete in the semi-finals at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Amsterdam after good results in repechages today.

Claire Lambe and Sarah Dolan passed three boats to win an exciting repechage of the lightweight double scull. Ireland were in fourth place, outside a qualification spot for the semi-finals, coming up to half way, but they made a powerful move around 1250 metres, and they swept past Italy and the Czech Republic over the next few hundred metres. In the closing stages they then passed Romania to win.

Lisa Dileen finished second in the repechage of the single scull. She was in a comfortable second place at 1500 metres, but actually passed Nicole Beukers of the Netherlands to lead in the closing stages, before the home favourite battled back to win by .35 of a second.

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

Men

Lightweight Single Scull – Quarter Final Four: 1 United States (A Campbell Jr) 7:11.51, 2 Greece (P Magdanis) 7:14.64, 3 Peru (R Leon Garcia) 7:20.45; 4 Ireland (J Mitchell) 7:33.62, 5 Iraq 7:40.79, 6 Armenia 8:00.14.

Women

Lightweight Double Scull – Repechage (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals): 1 Ireland (S Dolan, C Lambe) 7:24.04, 2 Romania 7:24.63, 3 Italy 7:26.92; 4 Czech Republic 7:35.46, 5 Tunisia 8:00.09.

Single Scull – Repechage (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals): 1 The Netherlands (N Beukers) 7:45.46, 2 Ireland (L Dilleen) 7:45.81, 3 Greece (A Nikolaidou) 7:52.71; 4 Latvia 8:06.32, 5 USA 8:11.64.

 

Published in Rowing

Ireland’s Jonathan Mitchell missed out on a place in the A/B semi-finals after a fourth-place finish in the quarter-finals of the lightweight single scull at the World Under-23 Championships in Amsterdam. The Queen’s University man needed to finish in one of the first three positions, but the United States, Greece and Peru had firmly established themselves in a stretched-out 1-2-3 formation by halfway, with Mitchell further back in fourth. It stayed this way to the finish.

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

Men

Lightweight Single Scull – Quarter Final Four (First Three to A/B Semi-Finals): 1 United States (A Campbell Jr) 7:11.51, 2 Greece (P Magdanis) 7:14.64, 3 Peru (R Leon Garcia) 7:20.45; 4 Ireland (J Mitchell) 7:33.62, 5 Iraq 7:40.79, 6 Armenia 8:00.14.

Published in Rowing
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Irish Olympic Sailing Team

Ireland has a proud representation in sailing at the Olympics dating back to 1948. Today there is a modern governing structure surrounding the selection of sailors the Olympic Regatta

Irish Olympic Sailing FAQs

Ireland’s representation in sailing at the Olympics dates back to 1948, when a team consisting of Jimmy Mooney (Firefly), Alf Delany and Hugh Allen (Swallow) competed in that year’s Summer Games in London (sailing off Torquay). Except for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Ireland has sent at least one sailor to every Summer Games since then.

  • 1948 – London (Torquay) — Firefly: Jimmy Mooney; Swallow: Alf Delany, Hugh Allen
  • 1952 – Helsinki — Finn: Alf Delany * 1956 – Melbourne — Finn: J Somers Payne
  • 1960 – Rome — Flying Dutchman: Johnny Hooper, Peter Gray; Dragon: Jimmy Mooney, David Ryder, Robin Benson; Finn: J Somers Payne
  • 1964 – Tokyo — Dragon: Eddie Kelliher, Harry Maguire, Rob Dalton; Finn: Johnny Hooper 
  • 1972 – Munich (Kiel) — Tempest: David Wilkins, Sean Whitaker; Dragon: Robin Hennessy, Harry Byrne, Owen Delany; Finn: Kevin McLaverty; Flying Dutchman: Harold Cudmore, Richard O’Shea
  • 1976 – Montreal (Kingston) — 470: Robert Dix, Peter Dix; Flying Dutchman: Barry O’Neill, Jamie Wilkinson; Tempest: David Wilkins, Derek Jago
  • 1980 – Moscow (Tallinn) — Flying Dutchman: David Wilkins, Jamie Wilkinson (Silver medalists) * 1984 – Los Angeles — Finn: Bill O’Hara
  • 1988 – Seoul (Pusan) — Finn: Bill O’Hara; Flying Dutchman: David Wilkins, Peter Kennedy; 470 (Women): Cathy MacAleavy, Aisling Byrne
  • 1992 – Barcelona — Europe: Denise Lyttle; Flying Dutchman: David Wilkins, Peter Kennedy; Star: Mark Mansfield, Tom McWilliam
  • 1996 – Atlanta (Savannah) — Laser: Mark Lyttle; Europe: Aisling Bowman (Byrne); Finn: John Driscoll; Star: Mark Mansfield, David Burrows; 470 (Women): Denise Lyttle, Louise Cole; Soling: Marshall King, Dan O’Grady, Garrett Connolly
  • 2000 – Sydney — Europe: Maria Coleman; Finn: David Burrows; Star: Mark Mansfield, David O'Brien
  • 2004 – Athens — Europe: Maria Coleman; Finn: David Burrows; Star: Mark Mansfield, Killian Collins; 49er: Tom Fitzpatrick, Fraser Brown; 470: Gerald Owens, Ross Killian; Laser: Rory Fitzpatrick
  • 2008 – Beijing (Qingdao) — Star: Peter O’Leary, Stephen Milne; Finn: Tim Goodbody; Laser Radial: Ciara Peelo; 470: Gerald Owens, Phil Lawton
  • 2012 – London (Weymouth) — Star: Peter O’Leary, David Burrows; 49er: Ryan Seaton, Matt McGovern; Laser Radial: Annalise Murphy; Laser: James Espey; 470: Gerald Owens, Scott Flanigan
  • 2016 – Rio — Laser Radial (Women): Annalise Murphy (Silver medalist); 49er: Ryan Seaton, Matt McGovern; 49erFX: Andrea Brewster, Saskia Tidey; Laser: Finn Lynch; Paralympic Sonar: John Twomey, Ian Costello & Austin O’Carroll

Ireland has won two Olympics medals in sailing events, both silver: David Wilkins, Jamie Wilkinson in the Flying Dutchman at Moscow 1980, and Annalise Murphy in the Laser Radial at Rio 2016.

The current team, as of December 2020, consists of Laser sailors Finn Lynch, Liam Glynn and Ewan McMahon, 49er pairs Ryan Seaton and Seafra Guilfoyle, and Sean Waddilove and Robert Dickson, as well as Laser Radial sailors Annalise Murphy and Aoife Hopkins.

Irish Sailing is the National Governing Body for sailing in Ireland.

Irish Sailing’s Performance division is responsible for selecting and nurturing Olympic contenders as part of its Performance Pathway.

The Performance Pathway is Irish Sailing’s Olympic talent pipeline. The Performance Pathway counts over 70 sailors from 11 years up in its programme.The Performance Pathway is made up of Junior, Youth, Academy, Development and Olympic squads. It provides young, talented and ambitious Irish sailors with opportunities to move up through the ranks from an early age. With up to 100 young athletes training with the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway, every aspect of their performance is planned and closely monitored while strong relationships are simultaneously built with the sailors and their families

Rory Fitzpatrick is the head coach of Irish Sailing Performance. He is a graduate of University College Dublin and was an Athens 2004 Olympian in the Laser class.

The Performance Director of Irish Sailing is James O’Callaghan. Since 2006 James has been responsible for the development and delivery of athlete-focused, coach-led, performance-measured programmes across the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway. A Business & Economics graduate of Trinity College Dublin, he is a Level 3 Qualified Coach and Level 2 Coach Tutor. He has coached at five Olympic Games and numerous European and World Championship events across multiple Olympic classes. He is also a member of the Irish Sailing Foundation board.

Annalise Murphy is by far and away the biggest Irish sailing star. Her fourth in London 2012 when she came so agonisingly close to a bronze medal followed by her superb silver medal performance four years later at Rio won the hearts of Ireland. Murphy is aiming to go one better in Tokyo 2021. 

Under head coach Rory Fitzpatrick, the coaching staff consists of Laser Radial Academy coach Sean Evans, Olympic Laser coach Vasilij Zbogar and 49er team coach Matt McGovern.

The Irish Government provides funding to Irish Sailing. These funds are exclusively for the benefit of the Performance Pathway. However, this falls short of the amount required to fund the Performance Pathway in order to allow Ireland compete at the highest level. As a result the Performance Pathway programme currently receives around €850,000 per annum from Sport Ireland and €150,000 from sponsorship. A further €2 million per annum is needed to have a major impact at the highest level. The Irish Sailing Foundation was established to bridge the financial gap through securing philanthropic donations, corporate giving and sponsorship.

The vision of the Irish Sailing Foundation is to generate the required financial resources for Ireland to scale-up and execute its world-class sailing programme. Irish Sailing works tirelessly to promote sailing in Ireland and abroad and has been successful in securing funding of 1 million euro from Sport Ireland. However, to compete on a par with other nations, a further €2 million is required annually to realise the ambitions of our talented sailors. For this reason, the Irish Sailing Foundation was formed to seek philanthropic donations. Led by a Board of Directors and Head of Development Kathryn Grace, the foundation lads a campaign to bridge the financial gap to provide the Performance Pathway with the funds necessary to increase coaching hours, upgrade equipment and provide world class sport science support to a greater number of high-potential Irish sailors.

The Senior and Academy teams of the Performance Pathway are supported with the provision of a coach, vehicle, coach boat and boats. Even with this level of subsidy there is still a large financial burden on individual families due to travel costs, entry fees and accommodation. There are often compromises made on the amount of days a coach can be hired for and on many occasions it is necessary to opt out of major competitions outside Europe due to cost. Money raised by the Irish Sailing Foundation will go towards increased quality coaching time, world-class equipment, and subsiding entry fees and travel-related costs. It also goes towards broadening the base of talented sailors that can consider campaigning by removing financial hurdles, and the Performance HQ in Dublin to increase efficiency and reduce logistical issues.

The ethos of the Performance Pathway is progression. At each stage international performance benchmarks are utilised to ensure the sailors are meeting expectations set. The size of a sailor will generally dictate which boat they sail. The classes selected on the pathway have been identified as the best feeder classes for progression. Currently the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway consists of the following groups: * Pathway (U15) Optimist and Topper * Youth Academy (U19) Laser 4.7, Laser Radial and 420 * Development Academy (U23) Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX * Team IRL (direct-funded athletes) Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX

The Irish Sailing performance director produces a detailed annual budget for the programme which is presented to Sport Ireland, Irish Sailing and the Foundation for detailed discussion and analysis of the programme, where each item of expenditure is reviewed and approved. Each year, the performance director drafts a Performance Plan and Budget designed to meet the objectives of Irish Performance Sailing based on an annual review of the Pathway Programmes from Junior to Olympic level. The plan is then presented to the Olympic Steering Group (OSG) where it is independently assessed and the budget is agreed. The OSG closely monitors the delivery of the plan ensuring it meets the agreed strategy, is within budget and in line with operational plans. The performance director communicates on an ongoing basis with the OSG throughout the year, reporting formally on a quarterly basis.

Due to the specialised nature of Performance Sport, Irish Sailing established an expert sub-committee which is referred to as the Olympic Steering Group (OSG). The OSG is chaired by Patrick Coveney and its objective is centred around winning Olympic medals so it oversees the delivery of the Irish Sailing’s Performance plan.

At Junior level (U15) sailors learn not only to be a sailor but also an athlete. They develop the discipline required to keep a training log while undertaking fitness programmes, attending coaching sessions and travelling to competitions. During the winter Regional Squads take place and then in spring the National Squads are selected for Summer Competitions. As sailors move into Youth level (U19) there is an exhaustive selection matrix used when considering a sailor for entry into the Performance Academy. Completion of club training programmes, attendance at the performance seminars, physical suitability and also progress at Junior and Youth competitions are assessed and reviewed. Once invited in to the Performance Academy, sailors are given a six-month trial before a final decision is made on their selection. Sailors in the Academy are very closely monitored and engage in a very well planned out sailing, training and competition programme. There are also defined international benchmarks which these sailors are required to meet by a certain age. Biannual reviews are conducted transparently with the sailors so they know exactly where they are performing well and they are made aware of where they may need to improve before the next review.

©Afloat 2020