Updated at 4pm
IRELAND OLYMPIC SILVER medallists, Gary and Paul O’Donovan, needed the repechage, but they booked their place in the semi-finals of the European Rowing Championships this afternoon.
The Cork pair surprisingly missed out on automatic qualification for the lightweight men’s doubles sculls semi-finals in the Czech Republic this morning, finishing some six seconds behind the Polish pair of Milosz Jankowski and Jerzy Kowalski in their heat.
However, they finished two seconds ahead of the Ukrainian boat in the repechage to make the semi-finals.
Denise Walsh also made the A/B semi-finals of the lightweight singles by winning her heat this morning.
Her time of 07:44.850 was half a second better than Denmark’s Aja Runge Holmegaard in second place.
Meanwhile, Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll won their test race this afternoon to decide their lane in Sunday Lightweight Pair’s final.
Ireland’s other competitor, Sanita Puspure, had to withdraw from the championships because of illness.
Elsewhere, Rowing Ireland have announced the appointment of Italian Olympic rower Antonio Maurogiovanni as its High Performance Director.
Maurogiovanni competed at the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Games in the four and eight respectively.
Maurogiovanni has competed or coached at seven Olympic Games with several nations including Italy, the Netherlands, and Australia.
Originally published at 2pm.
