Rowing kicked off the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this morning. Two Irish crews competed in their heats at the Sea Forest Waterway. Sanita Pušpure raced in the Women’s Single Sculls and Ronan Byrne and Phil Doyle raced in the Men’s Double Sculls.
Sanita Pušpure finished first in the Women’s Single Sculls Heat. Sanita faced competition from Kathleen Noble (Uganda), Anneta Kyridou (Greece), Felice Chow (Trinidad and Tobago) and Joan Poh (Singapore. Sanita won the Heat with a time of 07:46.08.
Sanita has progressed to the Quarter-Final, which will take place on Monday morning. Listen to interview below
The second Irish crew saw the Men’s Double Sculls of Ronan Byrne and Philip Doyle finish fourth in their heat. Ronan and Phil competed against, Barnabe Delarze and Roman Roeoesli (Switzerland), Jack Lopas and Christopher Harris (New Zealand) and Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup (Poland). The Irish crew finished with a time of 06:14.40 in a very tight race but the crew from New Zealand just finished ahead of the Irish Crew to secure the final A/B Semi-Final spot.
Ronan and Phil will compete in Repechage on Saturday morning at 01:40.
Irish Results
Heats
Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Sanita Pušpure – 1st – 07:46.08
Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Ronan Byrne & Philip Doyle – 4th – 06:14.40
Saturday 24th Racing (IST) Repechage
Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Ronan Byrne & Philip Doyle – 01:40
Heats
Women’s Pair (W2-) Monika Dukarska & Aileen Crowley – 02:10
Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Margaret Cremen & Aoife Casey – 02:50
Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Fintan McCarthy & Paul O’Donovan – 03:30
Women’s Four (W4-) – Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Emily Hegarty & Fiona Murtagh – 04:00
Monday’s Racing (IST) Quarter-Final
Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Sanita Pušpure – 01:00 – 01:30 (Time to be confirmed)
