Returning to the international rowing scene, the Corkman also set a new World Cup record.

The Skibbereen rower, currently studying and racing for University College Cork, stormed his heat, winning it by 7 seconds. With this performance, he was going straight into the A/B Semi with the fastest time. Lukasz Sawicki from Poland and Finn Wolter from Germany were both unable to race the semi due to illness, which reduced the field to four boats.

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The W2- of Emily Hegarty and Fiona Murtagh began the medal streak with a bronze medal in their final. Coming up to the halfway mark the crew were bow ball to bow ball with the crew from Czech Republic. With each stroke, the crew in that third place position swapped back and forth, but it was the rowers from NUIG and UCC that held out and secured the medals.

Half an hour later Sanita Puspure and Zoe Hyde had their time on the podium. In the medal positions from the start, the crew went out as they intended to finish. Coming into the last few hundred metres the Chinese crew made a big effort to try to come through but the Irish crew made it over the line to secure silver medals.

The LW2x of Margaret Cremen from UCC and Lydia Heaphy from Skibbereen RC took off the starting blocks at a rate of 55 strokes per minute, leaving the rest of the field behind in those first few strokes. As the race developed, USA and Australia began to pull away but there was nothing separating the rest of the crews. It came down to a photo finish between the crew from Ireland and the crew from China, but it was the Irish that made it across first and won the bronze medals. In the end, there was only 0.3 seconds separating the crews from second place to fourth place.

The W4- of Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians BC), Tara Hanlon (UCC), Aifric Keogh (DULBC), and Natalie Long (Killorglin RC) came in winning the bronze medal and rounding up the Irish medal tally to six. An impressive final burst in the last 500m, moved the Irish crew from fifth place up to the bronze medal position.

On Saturday, Katie O’Brien took gold in the PR2 W1x in a new world record time while Fintan McCarthy claimed a silver medal in the LM1x.

Irish Results

PR2 W1x – Katie O’Brien – Gold Medal (World Record)

LM1x – Fintan McCarthy – Silver Medal

LM1x – Gary O’Donovan – 5th B Final

PR2 Mix2x – Katie O’Brien, Steven McGowan – 4th Place

W2- Fiona Murtagh, Emily Hegarty – Bronze Medal

W2x – Zoe Hyde, Sanita Puspure – Silver Medal

LW2x – Margaret Cremen, Lydia Heaphy – Bronze Medal

W4- Eimear Lambe, Tara Hanlon, Aifric Keogh, Natalie Long – Bronze Medal

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Katie O’Brien won a gold medal and also set a new world best time, knocking over 10 seconds off the previous best time. Dominating her race from the start, O’Brien came in with a time of 09:14.65. She’ll race again tomorrow morning in the PR2 Mix2x A Final at 9:37am Irish time.

In the LM1x A/B Semi Fintan McCarthy and Gary O’Donovan went head to head. In a tight race with the top three crews within 2 seconds of each other, McCarthy took the lead position, qualifying for the A Final with O’Donovan narrowly missed out, qualifying for the B Final with a fifth place finish.

Fintan McCarthy put up a strong showing in the A Final of the LM1x, coming home with the silver medal and only one second off the gold medal. Gary O’Donovan placed fifth in the LM1x B Final.

Murtagh and Hegarty win W2- Repechage

Fiona Murtagh of NUIG and Emily Hegarty of UCC, stormed the W2- Repechage, winning with a time of 7:09.75, three seconds ahead of the next crew. The crew qualified for the A Final tomorrow where they will race for the medals.

The W2x of Sanita Puspure and Zoe Hyde came second in their semi-final, and have qualified for the A Final on Sunday. With fast racing in their semi-final, the Irish crew will go into the final with the second fastest time.

More final qualifiers

The W4- crew won their A/B semi-final, fighting to the line with the New Zealand and Canadian crews. Through the 1,000m mark, the Irish 4- came through the Canadian crew and managed to stay ahead until the finish. With less than two seconds between the three crews, it’ll be an exciting final tomorrow.

The Irish LW2x of Margaret Cremen and Lydia Heaphy qualified for the A Final tomorrow. The leading four crews of Switzerland, New Zealand, Ireland and Poland, stayed in contention from the very start of the race. With only three crews to qualify for the A Final tomorrow, all crews were working hard the entire way through the race. Coming down to the last few metres, the Irish crew were able to secure their third place position and qualify for that A Final.

Sunday Schedule (IST)

• PR2 Mix2x A Final ~ 9:37am
• W2- A Final ~ 9:53am
• W2x A Final ~ 10:23am
• LW2x A Final ~ 10:53am
• W4- A Final ~ 11:38am

Saturday’s Results

• PR2 W1x Katie O’Brien – A Final – Gold medal (New world record)
• LM1x Fintan McCarthy – A Final – Silver medal
• LM1x Gary O’Donovan – B Final – 5th place
• LM1x A/B Semi (Fintan) – 1st place
• LM1x A/B Semi (Gary) – 5th place
• W2- Rep – 1st place
• W2x A/B Semi – 2nd place
• W4- A/B Semi – 1st place
• LW2x A/B Semi – 3rd place

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There are 55 categories on show at the Championships with 503 crews entered for the weekend across all of them.

Our High-Performance athletes will be representing their clubs across several categories with senior and under 23 high-performance athletes competing throughout the weekend.

Fresh off their incredibly impressive gold medal victory in the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls, both Fintan McCarthy (Skibbereen Rowing Club) and Paul O’Donovan (UCC Rowing Club) will compete in multiple senior events as they look to add to an outstanding 2021.

Rio 2016 silver medalist Gary O’Donovan (Skibbereen Rowing Club) will also compete with Daire Lynch (Clonmel Rowing Club) and Ronan Byrne (UCC Rowing Club), of the Men’s Double Sculls crew from Tokyo, rounding out the men’s high-performance athletes currently confirmed for the Championships.

On the women’s high-performance front, two of Ireland’s bronze medal-winning Women’s Four crew have been announced, with Emily Hegarty (UCC Rowing Club) and Aifric Keogh (UCC Rowing Club) set to compete.

Aoife Casey (UCC Rowing Club) and Margaret Cremen (UCC Rowing Club), who raced together in the Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls in Tokyo, will both feature in a number of senior events, with Monika Dukarska (Killorglin Rowing Club) of the Women’s Pair Olympic crew also set to set to race at the NRC.

Tara Hanlon (UCC Rowing Club) and Lydia Heaphy (UCC Rowing Club) round out a stacked line-up of high-performance athletes set to compete in Cork.

Some of our other High-Performance athletes will also be representing their clubs at the Irish Rowing Championships: Claire Feerick (Neptune Rowing Club), Jake McCarthy (Skibbereen Rowing Club), Cliodhna Nolan (NUIG), Alex Byrne (UCC RC), John Kearney (UCC RC), Ross Corrigan (QUBBC), Jack Dorney (Shandon), Hugh Moore (QUBBC), Finn O’Reilly (Skibbereen RC), and Leah O’Regan (Shandon).

Rowing Ireland’s Chief Executive Officer, Michelle Carpenter said, “After such remarkable Olympics games from our team, I am delighted to see so many set to compete amongst a very impressive line-up at the Irish Rowing Championships 2021.

“Our high-performance athletes have shown that they are some of the best in the world and it will be wonderful to see so many showcases their talents once again at the Kinetica National Rowing Centre. In addition, we have crews from our clubs and grassroots around the country coming to our home of Irish rowing.

“I am looking forward to what’s set to be a really exciting event”

Senior High-Performance Athletes Competing

• Fintan McCarthy (Skibbereen Rowing Club)
• Paul O’Donovan (UCC Rowing Club)
• Emily Hegarty (UCC Rowing Club)
• Aifric Keogh (UCC Rowing Club)
• Gary O’Donovan (Skibbereen Rowing Club)
• Jake McCarthy (Skibbereen Rowing Club)
• Monika Dukarska (Killorglin Rowing Club)
• Ronan Byrne (UCC Rowing Club)
• Tara Hanlon (UCC Rowing Club)
• Daire Lynch (Clonmel Rowing Club)
• Gary O’Donovan (Skibbereen Rowing Club)
• Jake McCarthy (Skibbereen Rowing Club)

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The quartet – Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Emily Hegarty and Fiona Murtagh – took bronze after a slow start to the final and doubled the amount of Irish female Olympic medalists as a result, becoming the first women to win an Olympic rowing medal for Team Ireland.

The four women are proud of their achievements in Tokyo and are humbled by the statistics that have sprouted from their bronze medal finish.

“You don’t even realise [what you’ve achieved] until after and I think it’s a really proud moment for us,” Keogh said.

“When we see those things written down it’s like a shock almost and we’re really proud of it.”

The crew are far more spaced out than the gold medalist double sculls duo of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy.

Murtagh and Keogh returned to Galway as the first Olympic medalists from the county while Lambe comes from Dublin and Hegarty hails from Skibbereen, like the men’s duo.

Murtagh stated that downtime is needed after an intensive few months for the four women.

The 25-year-old said: “Oh, I definitely want to take a bit of time off! It’s been a long preparation and we’ve all worked really hard, so we definitely deserve a break to spend time with family and friends. It’s been so long since we’ve seen anyone.”

Their intensive training in the build-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has seen them form a bubble with each other.

The quartet has rarely mixed outside of their own training group since their training began 13 months before their successful Olympic campaign due to Covid-19.

They are all excited to burst that bubble and see their loved ones after being focused on the Olympics for so long.

Outside Christmas, we probably haven’t seen our families except [for] the odd weekend here or there.

“There were times when we needed time away from the group, but we knew the smart thing was to keep the group as safe as possible and stay within the bubble.”

As Murtagh described it: “We have our own different journeys to go on.”

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The pair won the Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls on Thursday morning, pulling past the Germans in the second half of the race after their main opposition got off to a strong start.

The win and gold medal rounded up a dominant Olympic campaign for the duo, who came first in all three of their races in the event.

Paul’s latest medal adds to the silver he won with brother Gary at Rio in 2016 as part of Team Ireland and several world championship gold medals.

Paul has not felt that the medal is too different from the others he has picked up throughout his career.

“We are always trying to be the best we can be,” he said.

“We’d be sitting down with Dominic [Casey] and planning out training, and we are constantly adjusting stuff. Then to go out and do the test gives a nice confirmation that you’ve done a good job and are on the right track.”

Casey coached the pair at the Games and added to the Skibbereen connection the rowers have.

The coach, who also oversaw the silver medal in Rio, is a member of the club O’Donovan and McCarthy both hail from – Skibbereen Rowing Club.

The duo feels that the hard work that is put in behind-the-scenes is what has helped them succeed, adding that there is no special quality that sets them apart from the rest.

The down-to-earth confidence that the pair have is also visible in Casey’s approach to the sport, with O’Donovan noting that their coach’s main concern after the gold medal race was “getting the boat to rig.”

McCarthy was one of many who watched his clubmates win the silver medal five years ago and is starting to come to terms with his rise to prominence since then.

“It definitely helped me to get to where I am today because that I saw that it was possible,” said McCarthy.

“It gave me a lot of motivation just to keep going with it. We were doing similar enough training, we had the same coach, so it was pretty clear that it was a winning formula.

“We don’t get many opportunities to race, most of what we do is training so you really need to enjoy the training, enjoy the journey.”

However, now is a time for the journey to be paused momentarily, to relax and recover from their long period of Olympic preparation.

The duo returned home to Skibbereen as world champions and have plans that don’t include rowing on their mind for now.

O’Donovan will return to his studies at UCC where he is taking a degree in medicine.

The two-time Olympic medalist said that he believes the mic of rowing and college can help his longevity.

“I’d be looking forward to getting back to college life. A couple of months at this stage to catch up with all of the lads again.

“Too much of the rowing…I just get too consumed in it. It’s good for me to take a break.”

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The duo ended the drought with a consistent row to put themselves in the centre of the podium following a strong second half of the race.

Undisputed lightweight boxing champion Katie Taylor was the last Irish gold medal winner, beating Russia’s Sofya Ochigava to become the first-ever female Olympic champion at her weight class.

Since Taylor’s victory, Team Ireland had won eight medals – three silver and five bronze – but had failed to win gold until Thursday morning.

Let’s take a look at the medalists who made the country proud between the  Summer Olympics golds.

John Joe Nevin – London 2012 Silver, Boxing

John Joe Nevin won silver in the Men’s Bantamweight event in London after a 14-11 loss to now-professional Team GB fighter Luke Campbell.

The Mullingar-born two-time Olympian reached the final after beating the reigning bantamweight world champion at the time, Lázaro Álvarez of Cuba in impressive fashion.

Nevin has turned professional since earning silver at the Olympic Games and currently holds a record of 14-0.

However, he has not fought since 2019.

Paddy Barnes – London 2012 Bronze, Boxing

Belfast boxer Paddy Barnes earned his second consecutive Bronze medal at the Olympics after reaching the semi-finals of the Men’s Light Flyweight event in London 2012.

Old foe Zou Shiming defeated the Team Ireland boxer at the semi-final stage for the second time in a row after a countback saw the Irishman lose by a point (45-44).

Shiming went on to win gold once again while Barnes settled for bronze after two strong wins in the previous stages.

Barnes competed in Rio 2016 but was beaten in the Round of 16 and has had a professional career since, retiring in November after three losses in his last four fights.

Michael Conlon – London 2012 Bronze, Men’s Flyweight

Michael Conlon is the third and final boxer on this list and the fourth Irish boxer to come home with a medal in 2012.

Conlon was beaten by the eventual champion, Robeisy Ramirez of Cuba, after a close win against Frenchman Nordine Oubaali guaranteed the then 24-year-old a medal.

The bantamweight was controversially knocked out at the quarter-final stage at Rio 2016 but has since gone on to greater things, currently holding a 15-0 record in professional boxing.

The fighter is scheduled to fight T.J. Doheny at Falls Park, Belfast on Friday, August 6th.

Cian O’Connor – London 2012 Bronze, Equestrian

Cian O’Connor took home the bronze medal in London 2012 for the Individual Showjumping event.

The equestrian won the medal with his horse Blue Loyd 12 and the pair reached a silver medal jump-off after they were tied with Dutch showjumper Gerco Schroeder and his horse London.

The Irish duo racked up a four-second penalty while their opposition went flawless and O’Connor settled for bronze.

Rob Heffernan – London 2012 Bronze, Athletics

Rob Heffernan won bronze for his performance in the Men’s 50km Walk in 2012.

The Corkonian had crossed the line in fourth but was retrospectively awarded the bronze medal for the event.

The initial race winner, Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin, was disqualified almost four years after the race took place due to doping violations.

In the time since 2012, Heffernan had become a world champion with victory in Moscow in 2013.

The now 43-year-old competed in a fifth Olympic Games at Rio 2016 and finished three spots off the bronze medal in sixth.

Gary and Paul O’Donovan – Rio 2016 Silver, Rowing

One of Ireland’s latest gold medal winners, Paul O’Donovan, makes an appearance on this list alongside his brother Gary.

The pair took home silver in the same event that Paul and Fintan McCarthy won on Thursday morning in Tokyo.

The O’Donovan brothers won one World Championships after their Olympic silver in 2018.

Paul won a World Championship for the fourth year in a row alongside new partner Fintan McCarthy in 2019, having won two single sculls World Championships previously.

McCarthy and O’Donovan are now reigning Olympic champions, with Gary having been their reserve rower.

Annalise Murphy – Rio 2016 Silver, Sailing

Annalise Murphy won silver in the Women’s Laser Radial at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The sailor won Ireland’s first Olympic medal in the sport since 1980 with her performance in the medal race.

The Dún Laoghaire club member came fourth in London 2012 and got the medal she had wanted for so long after four more years of hard work.

The 31-year-old is currently taking part in the same event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty – Tokyo 2020 Bronze, Rowing

Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty won the first medal for Team Ireland on Wednesday, July 28th with a bronze medal performance in the Women’s Coxless Fours final.

The quartet kicked off Ireland’s medal haul with their third-placed finish, rowing over the finish line after gold medal winners Australia and the Netherlands.

The four women had only been together as a crew for six months when they got their spot on the podium.

Their win doubled the number of Irish women that have won Olympic medals for the team – the number is now at 8.

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Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty are the women behind Ireland’s first medal at Tokyo 2020.

Their win doubles the number of Irish women that have won Olympic medals for the team – the number is now at 8.

They join swimmer Michelle Smith, track star Sonia O’Sullivan, boxer Katie Taylor and sailor Annalise Murphy on the list.

Australia won the gold medal in an Olympic best time of 6.15.37 with the Netherlands second in 6.15.46.

Ireland finished five seconds off the pair of them in third with a time of 6.20.46 ahead of Britain by a single second (6.21.52).

Britain had been in third place throughout the race and at one point looked to be cruising to a medal finish.

Ireland was as low as fifth-place in the race at the halfway stage after a poor start saw them fall away from the pacesetters.

However, Ireland fought hard and got themselves up to fourth for the second time in the race by the 1500m mark.

The women ate at the time gap that the Team GB rowers had on them in third and overtook them heading into the final 200m.

The four rowers held on to their podium spot until they crossed the finish line to win a medal for Team Ireland.

This performance comes less than six months after the crew was formed.

The unlikely medal win serves as a promising precedent for what’s to come for Ireland in rowing at the Olympics, with Sanita Puspure and Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy tipped to do well in their respective events.

O’Donovan is already a medal winner for the nation in his event after winning silver in the Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls with his brother, Gary.

The Irish Women’s Four crew have potentially opened the floodgates for a successful Olympics for Irish rowing.

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Sanita Pušpure finished first in the Women’s Single Sculls Quarter-Final. She faced competition from Hong Kong, Serbia, USA, China and Paraguay. Sanita won the Heat comfortably with a time of 07:58.30 finishing ahead of Kara Kohler (USA) and Yan Jiang (China). She will now race in the A/B Semi-Final on Wednesday morning.

The Women’s Pair of Monika Dukarska and Aileen Crowley and the Lightweight Women’s Double of Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey also progressed to the semi-finals from their repechages.

They competed against USA, China and Greece. The Irish women finished with a time of 07:31.99. They will race in the A/B Semi-Final in the coming week.

Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey finished third in the Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls Repechage. The Irish pair finished with a time of 07:23.46. They have now qualified for the A/B Semi-Final during the week.

Ronan Byrne and Philip Doyle finished sixth in the Men’s Double Sculls A/B Semi-Final. They raced against against Poland, New Zealand, Britain, France, and Germany. The Irishmen finished with a time of 06.49.06. They will now race in the B Final on Wednesday morning.

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Daire Lynch will be competing in the Men’s Single in Varese. There are twenty six crews entered to compete in the Men’s Single Scull. There are two qualifying spots available in this category. Daire had a very successful 2020, winning Gold (U23 ERC) and Bronze (ERC) alongside Ronan Byrne. Daire won five Irish championships (four singles, one pair) and previously placed 8th at the Junior World Championship. Daire raced in the Men’s Single at the 2021 European Rowing Championships and finish 2nd in the C Final.

The crew of Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh and Emily Hegarty will be competing in the Women’s Four. The Women’s Four will be competing against seven other crews. There are two qualifying spots for the Olympics available in this category. Fiona, Eimear, Emily and Aifric won Silver at the 2021 European Rowing Championships last month in Varese. Last year Fiona, Eimear and Aifric won Bronze in the Women’s Four alongside Aileen Crowley at the 2020 European Championships. Fiona recently won Bronze at the 2020 European Rowing Championships in Poznan and has won the Head of Charles two years in a row. Eimear has been competing internationally since 2015 and won Silver at the 2019 U23 World Rowing Championships. Aifric has been a member of the high-performance team for several years, has won at the Irish Championships and has set new World Records on the ergometer. Emily has been competing internationally for several years after she started rowing in 2009. Emily previously won the Silver Medal at the 2019 World U23 Championships in Sarasota and a bronze medal in the Women’s Pair at the U23 2020 European Rowing Championships alongside fellow UCC athlete Tara Hanlon.

Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey will be racing in the Lightweight Women’s Double in Lucerne. There are sixteen crews entered in the Lightweight Women’s Double category. There is three qualifying spots available for the Olympics. They finished 5th in the A Final at the 2021 European Rowing Championships. Last year they won the Silver Medal in the same category at the European U23 Rowing Championships. Margaret and Aoife have competed together for several years and won Silver in this event at the Junior European Championships in 2017. They finished second in the LW2x B Final at the 2020 European Rowing Championships in Poznan.

Racing will start on Saturday with the Heats kicking off around 10am. The Quarter and Semi Finals will be on Sunday and the Finals on Monday morning. A full breakdown of times will be available after the draw on Friday afternoon.

Irish Crews

M1x Top Two Finish to Qualify

• Daire Lynch (Clonmel)

W4- Top Two Finish to Qualify

• Fiona Murtagh (NUIG)
• Eimear Lambe (OCBC)
• Aifric Keogh (UCC)
• Emily Hegarty (UCC)

LW2x Top Three Finish to Qualify

• Margaret Cremen (UCC)
• Aoife Casey (UCC)

Staff Team

Antonio Maurogiovanni – High-Performance Director

Fran Keane – Rowing Ireland Coach (not travelling)

Dominic Casey – Rowing Ireland Coach

Giuseppe De Vita – Rowing Ireland Coach

Feargal O’Callaghan – Team Manager

Follow the racing:

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