Day one of racing at the final Rowing World Cup of the 2024 season has successfully finished up for Rowing Ireland over in Poznan, Poland. Weather conditions held up for the day but with the forecast changing for tomorrow, racing has been pushed earlier for Saturday's schedule.
Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh kicked off the regatta in style for Ireland, finishing first in the heat of the Women's Pair to take the only spot directly into the A Final on Sunday. Leading the pack from the start line, there was no catching the Galway duo. It was the U23 pair from the Netherlands that took second place over eight seconds behind Keogh and Murtagh.
In the second heat it was Annabelle Mcintyre and Jessica Morrison of Australia that took the win, also qualifying directly into the A Final. Three weeks ago at World Cup II this Australian pairing took the silver medals ahead of Ireland. Will Ireland bump up a spot and get ahead of Morrison and McIntire? We'll have to wait for Sunday's final.
Following in the Women's Pairs footsteps, the Men's Double of Phil Doyle and Daire Lynch stormed through their heat taking first place and qualifying for tomorrow's A/B Semi. After missing out on World Cup II due to injury, Ireland are ready to go head to head with some of the top crews in the world before everything kicks off in Paris next month.
Tomorrow, Doyle and Lynch are up against the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, New Zealand and Croatia with the top three crews progressing to the race for medals on Sunday morning.
The Men's Pair of John Kearney (University College Cork RC) and Jack Dorney (Shandon BC/Harvard) finished second behind the Sinkovic brothers of Croatia. Up to the halfway mark, Kearney and Dorney sat in the middle of the pack in third place, but edged ahead of the Australian pair in the third 500 to take second place. Unfortunately with just one boat to head straight to the A Final, they'll race again tomorrow in the repechage with the top two boats will move on to the A Final.
Konan Pazzaia is back on the World Cup circuit after his sixth place finish at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. Competing again in the most subscribed event, the Men's Single, Pazzaia raced twice today, first in the heat where he finished third behind Brazil and Japan, and then on to the repechage this afternoon where he finished in first place to progress to tomorrow's A/B Semi.
The Preliminary race of the PR2 Men's Singles saw Irish athletes Tiarnán O'Donnell and Steven McGowan go head to head again. With just six entries in the event, this first race was solely to decide racing lanes for tomorrow's final where it will be a race to the line for the medals.
Three weeks ago in Lucerne, McGowan finished in fourth place with O'Donnell taking home the silver medal. In today's prelim, Tiarnán came second with Steven following right behind in third place. Make sure not to miss the action in tomorrow's final where there's potential for more medals to be coming back home with our para squad.
Day 1 Results (Irish interest)
Women's Pair Heat 1st -> A Final
Men's Double Heat 1st -> A/B Semi
PR2 Men's Single (O'Donnell) Prelim 2nd -> Final
PR2 Men's Single (McGowan) Prelim 3rd -> Final
Men's Pair Heat 2nd -> Repechage
Men's Single Heat 2nd -> Repechage
Men's Single Repechage 1st -> A/B Semi
Saturday Schedule (IST)
8:30am - Men's Pair Repechage
8:45am - Men's Double A/B Semi
9:27am - Men's Single A/B Semi
1:10pm - PR2 Men's Single Final
