#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.
