#Rowing: Denise Walsh took an excellent first place in her semi-final at the World Rowing Championships in Sarasota Bradenton in Florida today, making it two wins out of two races for Ireland on the day.
The Skibbereen lightweight sculler took a slight lead over Mary Jones at half way, with Emma Fredh of Sweden in third. These three then moved away from the rest. Walsh would not let either challenger head her – at the finish the trio finished in the same order, with less than a second covering them.
Kirsten McCann of South Africa won the first semi-final from Patricia Merz of Switzerland.
Earlier, Paul O’Donovan had won his semi-final of the lightweight men’s single sculls.
World Rowing Championships, Sarasota-Bradenton, Day Five – Irish interest:
Men
Lightweight Single Sculls – A/B Semi-Final One (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Ireland (P O’Donovan) 6:55.30, Switzerland (E Schmid) 6:59.04, 3 Brazil (U Batista) 7:00.47.
Semi-Final Two: 1 Norway (K Brun) 6:54.02, 2 New Zealand (M Dunham) 6:55.68, 3 Germany (L Wichert) 6:57.11.
Women
Lightweight Single Sculls – A/B Semi-Final Two (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Ireland (D Walsh) 7:45.89, United States (M Jones) 7:46.54, Sweden (E Fredh) 7:46.78.
Semi-Final One: 1 South Africa (K McCann) 7:39.55, 2 Switzerland (P Merz) 7:39.63, 3 The Netherlands (M Keijser) 7:49.17.
