Ireland qualify six boats for Sunday’s rowing finals in Italy

Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy into final in European Rowing Championships

Ireland’s Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy in action in Italy. Photograph: Detlev Seyb/Inpho
Ireland’s Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy in action in Italy. Photograph: Detlev Seyb/Inpho

Ireland have qualified six crews for A finals on Sunday at the European Rowing Championships in Varese, Italy. The team added two more to the four that had already qualified on Friday. The Lightweight Women’s Double and Lightweight Men’s Double sculls also qualified for their A final in Saturday competition.

The Men’s Double will be competing in the B final and the Men’s Single in the C Final.

The Lightweight Women’s Double of Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen finished second in their A/B semi-final. The Irish crew fought hard and beat the Russian boat to claim second place and finished just behind the Italian boat, their time of 07:14.44 seconds progressing them to the A Final on Sunday.

Current World Champions Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy won their semi-final in the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls. They led from the front from early in the race beating the Italian crew to first place with a time of 06:22.74, the quickest time for all 12 crews across the two semi-finals.

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The Irish Men’s Double of Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne finished sixth in their A/B semi-final and will race in the B final on Sunday. They finished with a time of 06:21.38.

Sunday Racing Times (IST)

07:45 - M1x - Daire Lynch - C FINAL

08:15 - M2x - Phil Doyle & Ronan Byrne - B FINAL

09:51 - LW1 Lydia Heaphy - A FINAL

10:06 - LM1x - Gary O’Donovan - A FINAL

11:21 - W2- Monika Dukarska & Aileen Crowley - A FINAL

12:21 - W4- Emily Hegarty, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh & Fiona Murtagh - A Final

12:51 - LW2x - Aoife Casey & Margaret Cremen - A FINAL

13:06 - LM2x - Paul O’Donovan & Fintan McCarthy - A FINAL

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson is a sports writer with The Irish Times