Ireland’s rowers won two medals, set a new world record and qualified for five Finals at World Cup II in Poznan, Poland.
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
