Gold for O'Driscoll and O'Donovan at World Cup

7th May 2017

#Rowing: Ireland won the first gold medal of the World Cup Regatta in Belgrade this morning through an outstanding performance by Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll in the lightweight pair. They took on and beat the Britain crew of Joel Cassells and Sam Scrimgeour – who in a tight finish could not hold second and finished third behind Russia.

O'Donovan told the official worldrowing site that they felt good during the race and gave credit to Dominic Casey, who is now the Ireland head coach. "Going forward we are going to a training camp in Varese and looking to implement new training and technique before Europeans.”

Cassells said: “We knew it was going to be a challenge. It was a pretty hard finish. The plan is to learn, the future is to get to the European Championships and retain the title.”

World Cup Regatta, Belgrade (Selected results; Irish interest)

Men

Lightweight Pair – Final: 1 Ireland (M O’Donovan, S O’Driscoll) 6:46.65, 2 Russia 6:47.67, 3 Britain (J Cassells, S Scrimgeour) 6:48.40.

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Liam Gorman

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Liam Gorman is a writer and reporter. He is the co-author of Little Lady, One Man, Big Ocean, published in the United States and Canada as Crossing the Swell. He is the rowing correspondent of the Irish Times.

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