#Rowing: Ireland’s Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne took fifth in their semi-final at the World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria this morning. They will compete in the B Final for places six to 12. The top three took A Final places and Ireland actually led through the first 500 metres. Britain’s Angus Groom and Jack Beaumont took over the lead and built it. They would go on to win. The Irish crew were still their nearest challengers at halfway, but from there New Zealand took over in second and held it. Ireland stayed well in it, but were passed by Romania and Poland. The Romanians took third.
In the first race of the day, the Britain women’s eight squeaked through to the A Final by taking the fourth of four qualification places in their repechage – by .16 of a second from New Zealand. Rebecca Shorten from Belfast is the stroke woman for the crew.
World Rowing Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Day Six (Irish interest)
Men
Double – Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): Britain 6:06.59, 2 New Zealand 6:08.00, 3 Romania 6:08.17; 5 Ireland (P Doyle, R Byrne) 6:10.95.
Women
Eight – Repechage (First Four to A Final): 4 Britain (8 R Shorten) 6:04.63.