# ROWING: Paul O’Donovan made up somewhat for missing out on a place in the A/B Semi-Finals of the junior single sculls at the World Rowing Championships when he won the C Final with a dominant performance in Plovdiv in Bulgaria today. The Skibbereen man, who was fourth last year in this event, was less than a tenth of a second off making the A/B semi-finals on Friday, but he left nothing to chance today and won well, placing him 13th in the overall rankings. His only test came from Leonard van Lierop of the Netherlands, who led early on and challenged again at the finish.
Niall Kenny made a serious bid for second place in the C Final of the lightweight single sculls. The race was won well by Germany’s Daniel Lawitzke, with Brazil’s Ailson Silva and Kenny fighting it out behind him. Silva clung on by .1 of a second, giving him 14th, while Kenny finished 15th overall.
In a two-boat D Final of the men’s lightweight pair, Mark O’Donovan and Anthony English could not best Chinese teenagers Zhiyuan Zhang (18) and Fengjian Qi (17). Ireland thus finish 20th in this class.
Kate O’Brien finished fifth in an interesting race in the D Final of the junior single sculls. The 17-year-old fought it out for third with Lisa Hirtenlehner of Austria for over a thousand metres, but the final quarter saw the Austrian push on – she took second in a photo finish with Chile’s Natalia Sanchez Rojas – while O’Brien was caught by Tunisia’s Racha Soula.
World Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Day Four (Irish interest)
Men
Lightweight Pair – D Final (Places 19, 20): 1 China 6:58.36, 2 Ireland (M O’Donovan, A English) 7:01.31.
Junior Pair – Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final, rest to B Final): 1 Romania 6:43.22, 2 Germany 6:45.36, 3 Greece 6:46.74; 4 Ireland (C Black, J Cassells) 6:50.66, 5 Poland 6:57.67, 6 Belgium 7:49.61.
Lightweight Single Scull – C Final (13 to 18): 1 Germany 7:09.58, 2 Brazil 7:11.88, 3 Ireland (N Kenny) 7:11.98, 4 Hong Kong 7:13.43, 5 Peru 7:14.38, 6 Japan 7:18.57.
Junior Single Sculls – C Final (Places 13-18): 1 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:10.99, 2 Netherlands 7:15.27, 3 Austria 7:21.98, 4 Zimbabwe 7:23.33, 5 United States 7:24.26, 6 Belgium 7:37.43.
Women
Junior Quadruple – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Britain 6:42.64, 2 China 6:45.37, 3 Greece 6:47.28, 4 Australia 6:47.80, 5 Czech Republic 6:51.05, 6 Ireland (K Cromie, H Shinnick, B Jacques, B Walsh) 6:52.07.
Junior Single Sculls – D Final (Places 19 to 24): 1 Russia 8:11.28, 2 Austria 8:13.99, 3 Chile 8:13.99, 4 Tunisia 8:18.17, 5 Ireland (K O’Brien) 8:19.09, 6 Bulgaria 8:24.66.
