Displaying items by tag: Rower of the Year

31st December 2015

Afloat Rowers of the Year Announced

#Rowing: The Afloat Rowers of the Year for 2015 are the Ireland men’s and women’s lightweight double sculls who qualified their boats for the Olympic Games in 2016.

Claire Lambe and Sinéad Jennings needed to finish in the top 11 at the World Championships in Aiguebelette in August/September. They seemed well-placed in their semi-final to qualify for the A Final, but were pushed into fourth as Canada finished with a remarkable sprint. The Ireland crew changed tactics for the B Final, and it worked. They finished ninth.

The men’s lightweight double of Gary and Paul O’Donovan had a similar qualification mark in Aiguebelette. To have a shot they had to finish in the top three in their quarter-final, and they achieved this, pushing Hayden Cohen and Peter Taylor of New Zealand into fourth. They finished fifth in their semi-final and then booked their Rio place with a fifth-place finish (11^th overall) in their B Final, eking out a place ahead of Greece, who had finished eighth at the Olympic Games in London.

Afloat wishes both crews and all the Irish rowing community the very best in 2016.

Rower of the Year Award: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year appeared on afloat.ie. The overall national award has been given to the crews who, in the judges' opinion, achieved the most notable results and made the most significant contribution to rowing during 2015. Keep an eye on progress in 2016.

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Paul O'Donovan is Afloat Rower of the Year for 2013

# RowerOfTheYear: Paul O’Donovan is the Afloat Rower of the Year for 2013. The scholarship student at UCD raced to a bronze medal in the lightweight single sculls the World Under-23 Championships at Linz-Ottensheim in Austria in July. The previous month the 19-year-old had made his mark as a senior international when the reached the A Final at the World Cup Regatta at Dorney Lake, the Olympic venue, finishing sixth.

For these feats the Skibbereen man won the Afloat Rower of the Month Awards for June and July. He is a worthy recipient of the Afloat Rower of the Year Award for 2013.

Rower of the Year: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine.

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Ireland Olympian Puspure is Afloat Rower of the Year

# ROWING: Sanita Puspure is the Afloat Rower of the Year for 2012. Puspure made the A Final as a single sculler at World Cup Regattas in Belgrade and Munich and did wonderfully well to qualify as the sole Ireland rowing representative at the Olympic Games. In the Olympic Qualification Regatta at Lucerne she claimed the fourth and final place, pushing Iva Obradovic of Serbia, one of the favourites, into fifth. The three women who finished ahead of Puspure cut a dash at London 2012: Denmark’s Fie Udby Erichsen took silver; Kim Crow of Australia took bronze (in addition to a silver in the double sculls); America’s Genevra Stone won the B Final. Puspure’s position was destined to be in the 11 to 13 ranking and she was unlucky first to suffer illness in the run up to the Games and then to be drawn in a difficult quarter-final which saw her lose out narrowly on a place in the A/B Semi-Finals, the top 12. She won the C Final convincingly to place 13th. After the race she spoke of looking forward to climbing the rankings in this discipline and of targeting Rio 2016. Her steeliness in key races and her very good form in the recent National Assessment suggests that the 30-year-old could be a rower to watch in this Olympiad.

Rower of the Year: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine.

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Ireland & La Solitaire du Figaro

The Solitaire du Figaro, was originally called the course de l’Aurore until 1980, was created in 1970 by Jean-Louis Guillemard and Jean-Michel Barrault.

Half a decade later, the race has created some of France's top offshore sailors, and it celebrated its 50th anniversary with a new boat equipped with foils and almost 50 skippers Including novices, aficionados and six former winners.

The solo multi-stage offshore sailing race is one of the most cherished races in French sailing and one that has had Irish interest stretching back over 20 years due to the number of Irish stopovers, usually the only foreign leg of the French race.

What Irish ports have hosted The Solitaire du Figaro?

The race has previously called to Ireland to the following ports; Dingle, Kinsale, Crosshaven, Howth and Dun Laoghaire.

What Irish sailors have raced The Solitaire du Figaro?

So far there have been seven Irish skippers to participate in La Solitaire du Figaro.

In 1997, County Kerry's Damian Foxall first tackled the Figaro from Ireland. His win in the Rookie division in DHL gave him the budget to compete again the following year with Barlo Plastics where he won the final leg of the race from Gijon to Concarneau. That same year a second Irish sailor Marcus Hutchinson sailing Bergamotte completed the course in 26th place and third Rookie.

In 2000, Hutchinson of Howth Yacht Club completed the course again with IMPACT, again finishing in the twenties.

In 2006, Paul O’Riain became the third Irish skipper to complete the course.

In 2013, Royal Cork's David Kenefick raised the bar by becoming a top rookie sailor in the race.

In 2018, for the first time, Ireland had two Irish boats in the offshore race thanks to Tom Dolan and Joan Mulloy who joined the rookie ranks and kept the Irish tricolour flying high in France. Mulloy became the first Irish female to take on the race.

Tom Dolan in Smurfit Kappa competed for his third year in 2020 after a 25th place finish in 2019. Dolan sailed a remarkably consistent series in 2020 and took fifth overall, the best finish by a non-French skipper since 1997 when Switzerland’s Dominique Wavre finished runner up. Dolan wins the VIVI Trophy.

Dolan finished 10th on the first stage, 11th on the second and seventh into Saint Nazaire at the end of the third stage. Stage four was abandoned due to lack of wind.

Also in 2020, Dun Laoghaire’s Kenneth Rumball became the eleventh Irish sailor to sail the Figaro.

At A Glance – Figaro Race

It starts in June or July from a French port.
The race is split into four stages varying from year to year, from the length of the French coast and making up a total of around 1,500 to 2,000 nautical miles (1,700 to 2,300 mi; 2,800 to 3,700 km) on average.
Over the years the race has lasted between 10 and 13 days at sea.
The competitor is alone in the boat, participation is mixed.
Since 1990, all boats are of one design.