ROWING: NEWS ROUND-UP:LISA DILLEEN and Sanita Puspure, fresh from reaching a World Cup final in their first outing as an Ireland double scull, kept the good run going yesterday with two wins at Henley Women's Regatta.
As a double scull Dilleen (19) and Puspure (29) had just three-quarters of a length to spare over the British Under-23 crew in their final, but they then teamed up with Eimear Moran and teenager Holly Nixon to brush aside the British Under-23 lightweight crew in the elite quadruple sculls final.
Four Irish club crews – the UCD senior eight and Methody/Portoroa junior four and lightweight single scullers Sinead Dolan and Karen Corcoran O’Hare – also had good outings which ended in yesterday’s semi-finals. Ireland’s lightweight double of Siobhán McCrohan and Claire Lambe also reached this stage.
The Rowing Ireland crews competed as part of a sortie to the Olympic accommodation. The senior men’s crews competed at Marlow Regatta, the London Olympic venue, Dorney Lake, on Saturday, where the results were more mixed.
Michael Maher and Mark O’Donovan won the elite double, with the second Rowing Ireland crew, Anthony English and Jonathan Mitchell third. But the elite quadruple had to get through a repechage to reach the final, where they finished third. The busy English finished sixth in the elite single scull.
The big Irish winner at Marlow was John Keohane, the modest Lee Valley oarsman took the elite single scull, while Carlow won the intermediate two coxed four title.
At Athlone regatta on Saturday, NUIG took the overall prize. The Galway college club won the women’s senior and novice eights. There was no men’s senior eight, but Bann from Coleraine won the men’s junior eight and four. The Presentation junior pair of Kevin Neville and John Griffin took the title at both junior and senior level. Monika Dukarska won the women’s senior single scull.