Top Guns Fire at Irish Indoor Rowing Championships

25th January 2020

Ronan and Alex Byrne mock fight after finishing first and second in Limerick in their category Credit: Liam Gorman

#Rowing: The big guns in Irish rowing shot down record after record at the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships at the University of Limerick today.

Philip Doyle and Sanita Puspure set new Irish men's and women's records. Doyle's crashed through the old record by over a second, and his time of 5:51.1 was over four seconds better than his old personal best.

Puspure, the reigning World Rowing Champion in the single sculls, was delighted that she could cut 1.4 seconds off her Irish record on the ergometer, setting a new mark of 6:34.5.

Paul O'Donovan also cut his lightweight record down by 1.4 seconds, coming in at 6:04.8. Gary O'Donovan withdrew through illness. Fintan McCarthy on 6:10.0 and Shane O'Driscoll (6:11.5) set personal bests as they fought it out behind Paul O'Donovan.

Brothers Ronan (21) and Alex Byrne (19), finished first and second in the men's under-23 category -remarkably both brothers completed the 2,000 metres in under six minutes.

The Ireland lightweight women's group did not do the trial, while the top junior 18 woman was Fermoy's Alison Bergin. The top junior man was Finn O'Reilly of Skibbereen.

Irish Indoor Rowing Championships, University of Limerick, Saturday (Selected Results)

Men

Open: 1 P Doyle 5 mins 51.1 sec, 2 D Browne 6:02.7, 3 S Haugh 6:02.9.

Under-23: 1 R Byrne 5:53.8, 2 A Byrne 5:58.9, 3 R Corrigan 6:00.4. U-23 Lightweight: H Moore 6:21.

Jun 18: F O'Reilly 6:16.3, 2 B Colsh 6:19.4, 3 R Ager 6:23.2.

Women

Open: 1 S Puspure 6:34.5, 2 A Keogh 6:41.4, 3 F Murtagh 6:46.8.

Under-23: 1 E Hegarty 6:49, 2 C Feerick 7:15.6, 3 A Kelly 7:18.4.

Lightweight: 1 P O'Donovan 6:04.8, 2 F McCarthy 6:10.0, 3 S O'Driscoll 6:11.5.

Jun 18: A Bergin 7:09.3, 2 L McCoy 7:11.2, 3 H Davis 7:13.3.

The Ireland lightweight women's group did not do the trial, while the top junior 18 woman was Fermoy's Alison Bergin. The top junior man was Finn O'Reilly of Skibbereen

Published in Rowing

About The Author

Liam Gorman

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Liam Gorman is a writer and reporter. He is the co-author of Little Lady, One Man, Big Ocean, published in the United States and Canada as Crossing the Swell. He is the rowing correspondent of the Irish Times.

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