Rowing

The best young rowers in Ireland will be in Newry this weekend trying to impress and pushing for an opportunity to row for Ireland in this pre-Olympic year.

Rowing Ireland’s international programme was on view to the OCI this week.

The World Rowing U23 Championships in Belarus brought reward after year’s hard work to four athletes and their coaches. The crew of Justin Ryan (Skibbereen RC), Mark O Donovan (Skibbereen RC), Michael Maher (Commercial RC) and Niall Kenny (NUIG BC) (pictured left to right) finished just one second behind Germany, beating the British for the

Sean Casey , Irish Rowing's sole representative at the World Rowing Championship finished third in the men's single scull repechage missing out on a chance to compete in the A or B finals. The race was won by Ondrej Synek (Czech Republic) with Ariel Suarez (Argentina) came second with Sean Casey a clear third well ahead of Jueri Jaanson (Estonia). Synek and Suarez now go through to the semi-finals.

Martin McElroy who guided the British men's eight to Olympic gold in Sydney in 2000, has been appointed as the new performance director for Irish rowing, it has been announced.

Ireland's Lightweight Men's Four finished 2nd , behind winners Germany, this morning , therefore qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.They will join the Men's Heavyweight Four who have already qualified for Beijing.

Both Irish boats in action on the opening day of the final Olympic Qualifying regatta in Poznan, Poland this morning; the heavyweight men’s pair (M2-) and the lightweight men’s double (LM2x) raced well to finish second in their respective heats and advance directly to Tuesday’s semi-finals. The men’s lightweight four (LM4-) do not start their regatta until tomorrow (Monday) morning when they line up in their heat.

An Irish rowing team of three boats will race in the final Olympic qualifying regatta, in Poznan, Poland beginning on Sunday next (15th June) in a bid to qualify for this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Irish men's heavyweight four (M4-) of Alan Martin (NUIG), Sean Casey (Muckross), Cormac Folan (NUIG) and Sean O'Neill (St.Michael's) have sensationally qualified the boat for next year's Olympic Games in Beijing by finishing fourth in today's B final at the Rowing World Championships in Munich; tenth overall.

The Irish rowing team begin their international season on Friday (June 1st) when they take to the water in the first of the three leg Rowing World Cup Series at the Linz/Ottensheim venue in Austria.

Irish head coach Harald Jahrling used the opportunity of the official opening of the National Rowing Centre, Inniscara, Cork, to name his team for the first two regattas of the upcoming three leg World Cup series. Ireland will send six boats to the first and second World Cup regattas, which take place in Austria and the Netherlands respectively, in June.