To Rowing: And O’donovan Nationals Their Returning Fintan At Paul Mccarthy Roots

Rowing: Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan returning to their roots at Nationals — And Olympics Men's The Seb The O'donovan Picture: Double Paul During In Action Lightweight Fintan The Sculls At Left, Mccarthy, Daly/sportsfile Tokyo Of

Thu, 19 Aug, 2021 - 19:59

Colm O’Connor

Olympic medalists and stars of the future will compete at the 2021 Irish Rowing Championships which begins on Friday (9am) at the National Rowing Centre in Farran.

503 crews are entered across 55 categories for the three-day event which will be live-streamed by Rowing Ireland.

Fresh off their victory in Henley, and their historic gold medal performance in the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls at the Tokyo Olympics, both Fintan McCarthy (Skibbereen Rowing Club) and Paul O’Donovan (UCC Rowing Club) will compete in multiple senior events as they look to claim more silverware in an incredible 2021.

Gary O’Donovan (Skibbereen RC) will also compete with Daire Lynch (Clonmel RC) Jake McCarthy (Skibbereen) and Olympian Ronan Byrne (UCC RC), of the Men’s Double Sculls crew from Tokyo, rounding out the men’s high-performance athletes currently confirmed for the Championships.

On the women’s high-performance front, two of Ireland’s bronze medal-winning Women’s Four crew — with Emily Hegarty (UCC RC) and Aifric Keogh (UCC RC) — set to compete.

Aoife Casey (UCC RC) and Margaret Cremen (UCC RC), who raced together in the Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls in the Tokyo Olympics, will both feature in a number of senior events, with Monika Dukarska (Killorglin RC) of the Women’s Pair Olympic crew also set to set to compete this weekend.

Tara Hanlon (UCC RC) and Lydia Heaphy (UCC RC) round out a stacked line-up of high-performance athletes set to compete in Cork.

Many of Ireland’s high- performance athletes will also be representing their clubs at the Irish Rowing Championships, including Claire Feerick (Neptune RC), Cliodhna Nolan (NUIG), Alex Byrne (UCC RC), John Kearney (UCC RC), Ross Corrigan (QUBBC), Jack Dorney (Shandon), Hugh Moore (QUBBC), Finn O’Reilly (Skibbereen RC), and Leah O’Regan (Shandon).