New season, some new crews, still the same boat leading the way, the Irish lightweight double sculls pair of Fintan McCarthy and Hugh Moore straight into their semi-final as the 2023 European Rowing Championships got under way on Lake Bled in Slovenia on Thursday morning.
Moore, from the Queens Boat Club in Belfast, is sitting in for Paul O’Donovan, who currently has his head in the books as he completes his final medical exams at UCC.
The new pair impressed nonetheless, winning their heat ahead of Poland by 0.84 of a second, finishing in 6:26.98. That puts them straight into the semi-finals from 2pm on Friday.
Moore is already proven in the class, winning silver in the lightweight men’s double at Under-23 World Championships last year, and raced the single at the 2022 World Championships. McCarthy, the reigning Olympic, World and European champion, is chasing a third successive European title, the Skibbereen man last winning with O’Donovan in Munich last August.
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While some crews raced at the recent World Rowing Cup in Zagreb, for many, Bled is the first international event of the season. Starting under cloudy conditions and finishing in bright sunshine, all 10 of the Irish crews were in action, with only one more progressing into the semi-finals, the other eight all going into their repechage.
The new pair of Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch took their spot in Saturday’s men’s double sculls semi-final, winning their heat convincingly and ahead of France, finishing in 6:23.73. This combination raced in April at Memorial Paolo D’Aloja International Regatta in Piediluco, coming away with silver medals.
The women’s four, who won Olympic bronze in Tokyo, also finished second in their heat, Aifric Keogh, Fiona Murtagh and Eimear Lambe, this time joined by Tara Hanlon.
Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen took third in their lightweight women’s double sculls heat, having won World Championship bronze last year.
Double sculls bronze medallists from last year, Sanita Puspure and Zoe Hyde, finished second in their heat in 7:04.68 behind the Netherlands, so the repechage beckons their way too.
In the lightweight single sculls, Siobhán McCrohan also nailed second (7:54.39), while the men’s four of John Kearney, Ross Corrigan, Nathan Timoney and Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan took third in 6:05.77, just .07 shy of second-placed Italy. Also a relatively new combination, this boat took eighth at the World Championships last year.
Brian Colsh took third in the men’s single sculls, having also raced at the 2022 World Championships, finishing in 15th position.
In the women’s pair, Natalie Long and Imogen Magner finished fourth, as did Steve McGowan and Katie O’Brien in their para-rowing mixed double sculls in a time of 8:35.85. The Galway duo are up against the current world champions, Laroslav Koiuda and Svitlana Bohuslavska of Ukraine.
