“It’s some feeling,” said David O’Malley, as he reflected on the gold-medal win for the Ireland lightweight pair at the World Under-23 Championships.
He had teamed up with Shane Mulvaney for the second consecutive year, and this time the UCD men had only one thing on their minds. "After the bronze last year we wanted gold. We wouldn't have been happy with anything except gold."
Just two races later on Saturday at Poznan in Poland, the lightweight quadruple took silver, coming from the back of the pack.
It was a gutsy performance by Miles Taylor, Niall Beggan, Ryan Ballantine and cox Andrew Goff. "There's a good belief in the squad. You could see it in the performance of the quad," O'Malley said.
Come Sunday, there were two more finals for Ireland. Ronan Byrne had grabbed hold of his chance in the single sculls, but when he reached the top table he could not force his way into the medals. The lightweight double of Fintan and Jake McCarthy also looked - surprisingly for a Skibbereen crew - short of finishing speed. Both crews took fifth.
Britain won the top prize at the Coupe de la Jeunesse junior tournament in Cork. Ireland took third in both women’s and men’s events.
Elsewhere Ronan Foley won the B Final of the junior men’s K1 500 metres at the canoe sprint World Junior and Under-23 Championships in Plovdiv in Bulgaria. The Kilcullen paddler, who is European junior champion in the canoe marathon, also won the B Final of the K1 1,000 metres at the event. The win places him 10th overall.
World Under-23 Rowing Championships, Day Four, Poznan
Men's Lightweight Pair - A Final: 1 Ireland (S Mulvaney, D O'Malley) 6:54.48, 2 Greece 6:56.24, 3 Italy 7:00.07.
Lightweight Quadruple Sculls - A Final: 1 Italy 6:10.13, 2 Ireland 6:11.45, 3 United States 6:12.55.
Lightweight Double Sculls - Semi-Finals (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Spain 6:41.66, 2 Ireland (F McCarthy, J McCarthy) 6:42.45, 3 New Zealand 6:44.17.
Single Sculls - Semi-Final (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final):
1 United States (B Davison) 7: 14.65, 2 Ireland (R Byrne) 7:17.88, 3 Germany (M Weber) 7:24.24.
Lightweight Single Sculls - D Final (Places 19 to 24): 2 Ireland (H
Sutton) 7:21.95.
Women
Pair - B Final (Places 7 to 12): 6 Ireland (E Hegarty, T Hanlon) 7:51.20.
Lightweight Double Sculls - Semi-Finals (First Three to A Final; rest to B Final): 1 Italy 7:24.69, 2 Australia 7:30.08, 3 Greece 7:31.23; 5 Ireland (L Heaphy, M Cremen) 7:47.66.
