LAST UPDATE | 13 Jul 2019
SATURDAY PROVED A highly successful day for Ireland at the 2019 World Cup Regatta in Rotterdam, as Gary O’Donovan won bronze in the men’s lightweight sculls while four crews qualified for semi-finals.
Having qualified for the ‘A’ final in his A/B semi final earlier today, O’Donovan crossed in third, with Australia’s Sean Murphy taking gold and Rajko Hrvat of Slovenia snaffling silver.
“I think this race went well”, said O’Donovan afterward.
“I still need to work on my fitness, and that showed in the last 750. But it’s a work in progress. I came here to prove to myself and to the selectors that I still deserve a chance, that I can fight for a spot in the double sculls.”
His brother Paul has been partnered with Fintan McCarthy for the lightweight doubles for this competition. They are competing together for the first time, and today finished 1.66 seconds behind favourites Jonathan Rommelmann and Jason Osborne to qualify for tomorrow’s ‘A’ final.
Elsewhere, double skull pair Aileen Crowley and Monika Dukarska qualified for the women’s ‘A’ Final after finishing in second place behind Romania and ahead of Spain, while lightweight women’s double sculls crew Denise Walsh and Lydia Heaphy placed sixth in their race and now go into the women’s lightweight double ‘B’ Final on Sunday.
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