CORK’S MARGARET CREMEN and Aoife Casey made it through to the A/B semi of the lightweight women’s double at the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade.
Ireland and Romania that broke away from the rest of the field shortly after the halfway mark. Romania’s Ionela Cozmiuc and Mariana-Laura Dumitru won silver in this event back in July so the Irish pair are where they want to be, racing them to the line finishing just .38 of a second behind them.
Meanwhile, the pair of Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh had a good start to their campaign this morning in their heat. Finishing in second place, they are into tomorrow’s repechage as it was just one boat to progress to the A/B semi.
A win for Alison Bergin and Zoe Hyde sees them into the A/B semi for the women’s double. In a competitive race, the top three crews were less than two seconds apart coming into the final 500m with only two to get direct progression to the semi. Ireland were the fastest boat on the water for the second half of the race and it was enough to put them ahead of Lithuania to take that first place position. They’re up next on Thursday for the A/B semi, where progression to the A final will secure a definite place in Paris 2024.
The women’s four combination of Eimear Lambe, Sanita Puspure, Imogen Magner and Natalie Long raced for the first time this morning. Sitting in third place from the start Ireland held their position, doing enough to move straight through to the A/B semi. Great Britain, the World Champions, finished in first place with Australia, Tokyo 2020 champions, coming in behind them.
John Kearney, Jack Dorney, Adam Murphy and Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan are into the repechage after a sixth place finish in the heat of the men’s four. They will race again tomorrow against Denmark, Ukraine, Romania and Germany with three to go through to the A/B semi.
The men’s quad of Brian Colsh, Andrew Sheehan, Ronan Byrne and Konan Pazzaia finished sixth in their heat sending them into the repechage. This is the first time that Ireland have had a heavyweight men’s quad compete at a World Championships with the quad only being raced four times between 2004 and 2007 at World Cups. They race the repechage tomorrow where they face Czechia, Lithuania, Norway, Australia and the USA with three boats to make the semi.
It’s into the quarter-finals for Skibbereen lightweight sculler Jake McCarthy after a win in his repechage. McCarthy was positioned in second place throughout the race but moved into first place in the final quarter ahead of the New Zealand sculler Finlay Hamill. With two to qualify for the quarterfinals Ireland was able to ease up coming into the line with his fate secured.
All races will be live streamed on the World Rowing website here.
Day 2 Results
- W2- Heat 2nd -> Repechage
- LW2x Heat 2nd -> A/B Semi
- W2x Heat 1st -> A/B Semi
- W4- Heat 3rd -> A/B Semi
- M4- Heat 6th -> Repechage
- M4x Heat 6th -> Repechage
- LM1x Repechage 1st -> Quarterfinal
Tuesday Schedule (IST)
- 9:30am – PR2 Mix2x Heat
- 10:40am – W2- Repechage
- 11:15am – M4- Repechage
- 11:36am – M4x Repechage
