In the early hours of Sunday morning, two Irish crews were competing in the World Rowing Junior Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
The Junior Women’s Double Scull Crew of Molly Curry and Rhiannon O’Donoghue finished 5th in the A Final. The Irish crew are now ranked 5th in the World and represented Ireland proudly throughout the week in a hard week of racing. On Wednesday they competed in their Heat and finished 2nd to the Netherlands crew of Jacobien Van Westreenen and Lisa Bruijnincx, who would ultimately go on and win the A Final. The Irish JM2x boat won their following Repechage and would finish 3rd in their A/B Semi-Final and qualified for the A Final.
Ireland’s Junior Men’s Coxed Four (JM4+), of James O’Donovan, Matthew Gallagher Jack Dorney John Kearney and Leah O’Regan finished 4th in the JM4+ A Final on Sunday. The Irish boat finished 2nd in their Heat on Thursday and qualified directly to the A Final. The Irish Crew raced valiantly in the A Final and just missed out on a medal with a couple of seconds separating 1st to 4th. The Irish Crew are now ranked 4th in the World after winning Silver in the European Rowing Junior Championships earlier in the year.
Rowing Ireland’s High-Performance Director, Antonio Maurogiovanni said, “This year as part of the strategy the crews selected improved the level of quality of results as the results have shown.
We had the two Junior crews selected around May/June and they trained at the Kinetica National Rowing Centre for their Pre-World Championships preparation. The atmosphere and the enthusiasm around the group was great. Throughout their training at the NRC, we had the U23 and Senior team training side by side and this created a fantastic positive training environment which was beneficial for all the crews.
The results have shown how tough is to win the medal after the A final was achieved. Last year coaches and athletes learnt a lot and this year the two finals have proven that the direction engaged by the High-Performance program is taking the Irish Rowing towards a positive evolution for the best interest of our rowers.
This has been a great and positive experience and a huge learning opportunity for the future for the competing Junior Rowers. We still have a lot to improve and I have a strong belief that we can place crews in the medal area soon.
The JM4+ has raced the final with an outstanding level of courage going for the Gold Medal. They lost the Bronze Medal for 1.1sec making all of us proud and full of hope for the near future.
The JW2x with one of them still a junior rower next year had an outstanding week, they raced 3 times during the week and reached the A Final. Their 5th place is well deserved and this is a stepping stone for future successes.
The athletes want to train better and harder as they did since they were selected and they are highly motivated to continue their journey. I strongly believe that their domestic coaches will be very supportive and willing to help them when back at home and they will be ready to start the new season in the best interest of the rowers.
I wish to send a big thanks to all the club’s managers and coaches for their support in helping their athletes during these months. Big thank you to the parents and family of these athletes. Without their enthusiasm and support, it wouldn’t be possible to have these crews competing at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Tokyo.
An enormous well done to Fran Keane and John Armstrong, both are passionate and dedicated coaches and were both critical to the success in Tokyo, thanks to the Rowing Ireland Board, HP Committee and CEO Michelle Carpenter for their encouragement and support.
A big challenge is still in front of us and the athletes are ready to give it their all, let’s help them.”
More Information: http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2019-world-rowing-junior-championships/
JM4+ on their preparations for the World Rowing Junior Championships: Rowing Ireland YouTube
World Rowing Junior Championships Results:
JW2X;
- Heat 4 – 2nd Place – 07:16:550
- Repechage 1 – 1st Place – 07:10:060
- A/B Semi-Final – 3rd Place – 07:13:460
- A Final – 5th Place – 07:38:080
JM4+;
- Heat 1 – 2nd Place – 06:18:290
- A Final – 4th Place – 06:34.820
