Swimming:
John Shortt closes off a very successful World Aquatics Junior Championships in Otopeni, Romania, by claiming a second World Junior Title!
Full Results:
- 200m Backstroke – Gold (1:56.19 – Breaking the Irish Senior and Junior Record)
- 100m Backstroke – Gold (53.86s)
- 50m Backstroke – Bronze (25.06s)
On the importance of World Junior Championships experience for upcoming mayor senior meets, he added,
“I mean, it’s everything, because, you know, once you get to those really big finals, like Worlds or the Olympics, you need to be able to call on from these experiences and know that you can perform under pressure. After a really good swim this morning, I knew I’d put myself in a position where I could do something really special tonight, and that’s what happened.”
Rowing:
Rowing Ireland announced their team for the 2025 World Rowing Championships, set to take place from 21st – 28th September in Shanghai, China.
The 2025 World Championship team features a dynamic blend of experienced internationals and exciting new talent.
The full team representing Ireland are:
- Lightweight Women’s Single Scull (LW1x)– Siobhán McCrohan
- Women’s Single Scull (W1x)– Fiona Murtagh
- Women’s Double Scull (W2x) – Margaret Cremen & Zoë Hyde
- Women’s Pair (W2-)– Aoife Casey & Emily Hegarty
- Women’s Four (W4-)– Aisling Hayes, Imogen Magner, Emma Waters & Natalie Long
- Lightweight Men’s Single Scull (LM1x)– Jake McCarthy
- Men’s Single Scull (M1x)– Konan Pazzaia
- Men’s Double Scull (M2x)– Fintan McCarthy & Philip Doyle
- Men’s Pair (M2-)– Ross Corrigan & Nathan Timoney
- Men’s Quadruple Scull (M4x)– Andrew Sheehan, Adam Murphy, Brian Colsh & Ronan Byrne
- PR2 Mixed Double Scull (PR2 Mix 2x)– Sadhbh Ní Laoghaire & Tiarnán O’Donnell
- Reserves– Alison Bergin and Claire Feerick – Sculling and Sweep.
Badminton:
The World Badminton Championships (25th-31st August) kick off today in Paris, with Olympians Rachael Darragh and Nhat Nguyen are competing this week.
The full team representing Ireland are:
- Rachael Darragh – Women’s Singles
- Nhat Nguyen – Men’s Singles
- Moya Ryan & Orla Flynn – Women’s Doubles
- Joshua Magee & Moya Ryan – Mixed Doubles
EYOF athlete Hannah Shochan also claims a bronze medal at the u17 Danish Junior Cup.
Table Tennis:
EYOF athlete Peadar Sheridan claims a silver medal in Singles and a bronze in Doubles at the European Youth Series in Riga, Latvia.
Cycling:
The UCI Mountain Bike World Championships get underway this week, with racing taking place from August 30th to September 14th, as the world’s best riders from all mountainbike disciplines descend on Valais, Switzerland.
Ireland will have representatives in the Enduro, Downhill and Cross-Country disciplines, with eleven riders donning the green jersey this time around.
- Greg Callaghan, having recently retained his Enduro National Championship in Clonmel will ride the Enduro World Champs, while also acting as Team Manager.
- Joining Callaghan in the Enduro category, Kelan Grant will also represent Ireland once again. The pair both rode in last year’s inaugural Enduro World Champs, and with Grant just 0.05 seconds back from Callaghan at Nationals a few weeks ago, both will be pushing each other all week in Valais.
Three riders will represent Ireland in the Olympic length cross-country event:
- Chris Dawson, also fresh from defending his Senior Men’s National Championship not so long ago in Cork, will be the sole representative in the Elite Men’s class.
- Junior Women’s national champion Greta Lawless has been no stranger to riding for Ireland in recent years. The former European Youth Olympic Festival Athlete has ridden cross-country and cyclo-cross for Ireland in the last 12 months, including last year’s MTB World Championships and the recent European Championships in Portugal.
- Ryan Daly rounds out the Irish XC contingent. The Dubliner has represented Ireland in both cross-country and cyclo-cross in the last year, making his Ireland debut at last year’s CX World Cup in Dublin.
Tour de l’Avenir
The Irish team of Jamie Meehan, Dean Harvey, Ronan O’Connor, Adam Rafferty, Liam O’Brien and Seth Dunwoody lie in 2nd place in the team competition going in to stage two of the Tour de l’Avenir in France.
19-year old Adam Rafferty lies in 4th place in the GC with Liam O’Brien in 10th. The Tour De l’Avenir – also known as the U23 Tour de France is the most prestigious stage race for junior riders and finishes on Friday. In 2019, future Paris Olympian Ben Healy announced his arrival on the international stage by taking a daring solo stage win at the Tour de L’Avenir.