THERE WAS TO be no medal celebration for Ireland’s Andrew Goff, Jake McCarthy, Ryan Ballantine and Fintan McCarthy at the World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv this morning.
The Irish team finished fifth in the A Final of the lightweight men’s quadruple sculls in a time of 05:56.640 and three seconds outside of a medal position behind teams from Germany, Italy, Turkey and Denmark.
After a strong finish in their repechage on Wednesday, recording the third quickest time to qualify for the A Final, the quad didn’t have enough to reel in their Danish or Turkish counterparts to challenge for a spot on the podium. Germany and Italy claimed gold and silver respectively, while the Danes took bronze.
Sanita Puspure made a statement with her qualification to the women’s single sculls A Final this morning, finishing first in her semi-final and recording the fastest time in qualification (07:23.010).
Despite a strong start from Dane and 2012 Olympic medallist Fie Udby Erichsen, Puspure led heading into the last 1,000m – a lead she refused to relinquish. The 36-year-old claimed victory by almost seven seconds in this morning’s event.
She will take to the water in the hopes of taking a gold medal on Sunday morning at 11.19am Irish time.
Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne, meanwhile, booked their place in the B Final of the men’s double sculls with a fifth place finish in their A/B semi-final this morning.
Great Britain took first in their race, with New Zealand and Romania claiming second and third places.
Yesterday, Ireland’s Gary and Paul O’Donovan staked their claim for World Championships glory to qualify for Saturday’s A Final.
Ireland’s Emily Hegarty and Aifric Keogh also fly the Irish flag on Saturday in a bid to bring home a medal on Saturday morning.
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