#Rowing: The Ireland women’s four which took silver at the World Under-23 Championships in Florida are the Afloat Rowers of the Month for July.
It was a month of outstanding achievements for Ireland rowers. The men’s double of Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne and the lightweight double of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy both took silver medals at the World Cup regatta in Rotterdam – Paul O’Donovan fishing a stroke coach from the water and immediately getting back to racing. Gary O’Donovan took bronze in the lightweight single sculls.
The Irish Championships was the biggest ever, featuring the emergence of new young crews such as junior single sculls champion Holly Davis, and capped off with wins in the women’s senior eight for NUIG/Castleconnell and the men’s senior eight for UCD. Davis (14) went on to win gold in the junior single sculls the Home International Regatta, and the men’s junior eight, pair and quadruple also won gold.
Three Irish crews – UCD, Commercial and Skibbereen’s Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Dricoll – reached semi-finals at Henley Royal Regatta.
The World Under-23 Championships in Sarasota Bradenton saw the men’s coxed four take seventh, the lightweight women’s double fourth, and the lightweight men’s quadruple take a bronze medal.
The achievement of the women’s under-23 four of Claire Feerick (Neptune), Eimear Lambe (UCD), Tara Hanlon (UCC) and Emily Hegarty (UCC) was historic. They became the first Ireland women’s crew in a sweep event to take a medal at a World Championships.
They are the Afloat Rowers of the Month.
Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2019 champions list grow.
