#WorldUnder-23Rowing: Denise Walsh finished sixth in the A Final of the lightweight single sculls at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Linz in Austria this morning. The Skibbereen woman and Belgium’s Eveline Peleman were not far off the pace at the back of the field in the first half of the race, but when Peleman moved away, Walsh struggled. The race was won by Aikaterini Nikolaidou of Greece.

Seán O’Connor and Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan finished fourth in the B Final of the men’s pair, 10th overall. The Netherlands were the premier crew throughout, and for most of the first half of the race Slovenia held second and Hungary and Ireland were in third and fourth. Hungary had a good second half and left Ireland behind and then caught and passed Slovenia at the finish, to take second.

In the men’s lightweight double sculls, Shane O’Driscoll and Gary O’Donovan finished sixth. Denmark won convincingly. Ireland looked a possibility for fourth, and 10th overall, but were passed by Lithuania and Britain in the second half of the race.

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day Five (Irish interest, selected results)

Men

Pair – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Netherlands 6:47.87, 2 Hungary 6:49.68, 3 Slovenia 6:49.83, 4 Ireland (S O’Connor, F McQuillan-Tolan) 7:00.93, 5 Ukraine 7:03.46, 6 Lithuania 7:07.13.

Lightweight Double Sculls – B Final (Places 7 to 12): 1 Denmark 6:37.95, 2 Poland 6:40.97, 3 Lithuania 6:41.40, 4 Britain 6:44.76, 5 Norway 6:45.20, 6 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, G O’Donovan) 6:46.78.

Women

Lightweight Single Sculls – A Final: 1 Greece (A Nikolaidou) 7:58.12, 2 Belarus (A Kryvasheyenka) 8:02.79, 3 Japan (A Oishi) 8:06.68; 4 Belgium 8:09.10, 5 Austria 8:09.32, 6 Ireland (D Walsh) 8:14.47.

#WorldUnder-23Rowing: Ireland qualified two more boats for the A Finals of the World Under-23 Rowing Championships at Linz in Austria this morning, nailing top-three places in the semi-finals to join the women’s four in the hunt for medals.

Denise Walsh started the day well for the team in green by qualifying in the lightweight single sculls. Aikaterini Nikolaidou of Greece led the semi-final all the way down the course and won.   Walsh and Anna Berger of Austria got away from Julie Marechal of France to secure second and third, with the Austrian pipping the Skibbereen woman for second.

The favourite for gold, Andrew Campbell Jr of the United States, set the pace in the second semi-final of the lightweight single sculls. Paul O’Donovan again had a slow start and by half way still trailed the American by more than a length. O’Donovan, characteristically, closed on his rival in the second half, but Campbell held him off. Zak Lee-Green of Britain took the third qualifying place.

In the men’s pair, Fionnán McQuillan-Tolan and Seán O’Connor finished fifth in a race in which South Africa, Greece and Serbia took a grip of the qualifying places quite early.

Ireland’s lightweight double scull of Shane O’Driscoll and Gary O’Donovan fought their way from sixth to fourth in the middle stages of their semi-final, but could not break into the top three. Poland pushed them into fifth in the second half of the race.

World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Linz, Austria, Day Four (Irish interest, selected results)

Men

Pair - (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final) – Semi-Final One: 1 South Africa (D Hunt, V Breet) 6:46.15, 2 Greece (K Christomanos, A Dafnis) 6:49.16, 3 Serbia (M Vasic, R Deric) 6:49.47; 4 Hungary 6:50.31, 5 Ireland (S O’Connor, F McQuillan-Tolan) 6:59.77, 6 Lithuania 7:20.32.

Lightweight Double Sculls – (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final) – Semi-Final One: 1 Germany (M Moos, J Osborne) 6:36.55, 2 Italy (L Barbaro, S Molteni) 6:37.75, 3 Spain (J de Haz, J Zabala Artetxe) 6:37.88; 4 Poland 6:38.49, 5 Ireland (S O’Driscoll, G O’Donovan) 6:46.30, 6 Norway 6:48.13.

Lightweight Single Sculls – (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final) – Semi-Final One: 1 United States (A Campbell) 7:11.15, 2 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 7:12.58, 3 Britain (Z Lee-Green) 7:14.26; 4 Australia 7:22.67, 5 Italy 7:24.34, 6 Germany 7:28.69.

Women

Lightweight Single Sculls – (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final) – Semi-Finals Two: 1 Greece (A Nikolaidou) 7:54.92, 2 Austria (A Berger) 8:00.22, 3 Ireland (D Walsh) 8:00.28; 4 France 8:04.30, 5 Germany 8:11.25, 6 Cyprus 8:11.63.

# ROWING: Sanita Puspure produced her customarily excellent performance to win the 5,000 m time trial at the National Assessment in Newry today, but the rise of young female talent was reflected in the performances of Bridget Jacques and Denise Walsh. Jacques, who is 17, was the fourth fastest woman and Walsh, who just turned 20 and is a lightweight, was just one place further back. Incoming Ireland performance director Morten Espersen said the level of performance he had seen today was comparable to that in Denmark.

Rowing Ireland
5000m Time Trial
25th November 2012
HP Team
Nov 2012
Sex W
Values
Row Labels Time Senior % GMT Age % GMT
Sanita Puspure (Old Collegians BC) HW 21:13.3 83.4% 83.4%
Claire Lambe (UCD) LW 21:40.9 84.6% 84.6%
Amy Bulman (UCDBC) LW 22:02.4 83.2% 83.2%
Bridget Jacques (Belfast BC) WJ18 22:20.8 79.2% 84.7%
Denise Walsh (Skibbereen RC) LWU23 22:24.6 81.8% 83.9%
Sinead Dolan (DULBC) LWU23 22:41.3 80.8% 82.8%
Hilary Shinnick (Fermoy RC) WJ18 22:41.3 78.1% 83.4%
Siobhan McCrohan (Tribesmen RC) LW 22:44.1 80.6% 80.6%
Kate O'Brien (SMRC) HWU20 22:46.1 77.8% 79.6%
Cliona Hurst (NUIGBC) LW 23:11.0 79.1% 79.1%
Bernadette Walsh (Skibbereen RC) WJ18 23:21.2 75.8% 81.0%
Jasmin English (Belfast BC) WJ17 23:24.4 75.7% 80.8%
Aoife Leahy (QULBC) LWU23 23:24.6 78.3% 80.3%
Phoebe Mulligan (Portora BC) WJ18 23:32.3 75.2% 80.4%
Aifric Keogh (NUIGBC) HWU23 23:35.5 75.1% 76.8%
Claire Beechinor (Cork BC) WJ16 23:45.4 74.5% 79.6%
Hannah McCarthy (St. Michaels RC) WJ18 23:59.5 73.8% 78.8%
Kara O'Connor (Muckross RC) WJ16 24:07.7 73.4% 78.4%
aisling Rodger (Commercial RC) WJ17 24:13.8 73.1% 78.1%
Zoe Hyde (Killorglin RC) WJ16 24:14.9 73.0% 78.0%
Laura Kilbane (Cork BC) WJ16 24:16.2 73.0% 77.9%
Ruth Gilligan (Shannon RC) WJ18 24:22.0 72.7% 77.6%
Eimear Lambe (Commercial RC) WJ16 24:29.7 72.3% 77.2%
Daisy Callanan (Shandon B.C.) WJ18 24:31.8 72.2% 77.1%
Alice Beacom (Portora BC) WJ16 24:51.0 71.3% 76.1%
Erin Barry (Bann RC) WJ16 24:52.5 71.2% 76.0%
Ellie Sherin (St. Michaels RC) WJ18 24:57.3 71.0% 75.8%
Sarah Murphy (St. Michaels RC) WJ16 25:02.0 70.7% 75.6%
Clodagh Scannell (Shandon B.C.) WJ18 25:13.7 70.2% 75.0%
Erin Coll (Shannon RC) WJ16 25:24.7 69.7% 74.4%
Helen Ryan (Shannon Rowing Club) LW 25:35.2 71.7% 71.7%
Clodagh O'Sullivan (Shandon B.C.) WJ16 25:44.5 68.8% 73.5%
Chloe Finlayson (Portora BC) WJ16 25:46.4 68.7% 73.4%
Megan Blackburne (Fermoy RC) WJ18 26:01.0 68.1% 72.7%
Elizabeth Clarke (Portora BC) WJ16 26:28.5 66.9% 71.4%