O’Donovan and McCarthy set seal on best-ever European Championships for Irish rowers by defending their lightweight double crown

Fintan McCarthy (left) and Paul O'Donovan on their way to retaining their lightweight double title in Italy yesterday

Robert Treharne-Jones

April 12 2021 02:30 AM

World champions Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy fulfilled all expectations with a successful defence of their European title in Italy yesterday. Gold for the lightweight double was the icing on the cake for Ireland’s rowers, who finished the weekend with two medals from six A finalists – their best-ever European Championships.

Competing on Lake Varese, north of Milan, O’Donovan and McCarthy were characteristically slow off the start, with Jonathan Rommelmann and Jason Osborne of Germany leading the six-boat pack off the blocks.

With 750m gone, Ireland began to claw their way back through the pack, and were in second place at halfway, just half a length down on Germany. At 1300m, the world champions launched a blistering attack, which saw them move into the lead, and they crossed the line for gold, with clear water on Germany and third-placed Italy.

But despite qualifying direct for their own final, Ireland’s lightweight women’s double could not match the performance of their male counterparts. Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen went off at 48 strokes a minute and were well up with the close-knit pack at halfway. The inevitable kick into the second half left Casey and Cremen in fifth place, and it stayed that way to the line, where Italy won by half a length on Great Britain.

Ireland’s women’s four added a silver medal to the bronze they won at last year’s championships, and laid down a significant marker in their bid to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The Netherlands were first to show in the final, followed by Great Britain, and, after 500m, Ireland’s crew of Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty edged into third place.

With three boats clear of the pack at halfway, it was just the colour of the medals to be decided. By 1300m, Ireland went through the British boat and started to hunt down the Dutch. But despite upping the rate to 40, they ran out of water, and the Netherlands finished just 0.45 seconds clear, with GB taking the bronze behind Ireland.

However, there was disappointment for Gary O’Donovan and Lydia Heaphy in the lightweights single sculls after excellent performances in Friday’s heats to qualify direct for yesterday’s finals.

Heaphy hit a blistering 50 strokes a minute off the start to draw into an early lead ahead of Alena Furman of Belarus, with Claire Bove of France in third. After 400m, Furman pushed hard to overhaul Heaphy and, at the halfway mark, the Belarussian had command of the race. Heaphy was paying the price for the early sprint, slipping back down the field, and was eclipsed by GB sculler Maddie Arlett in the closing stages to finish sixth.

It was a similar story for Olympic silver medallist O’Donovan in the men’s event, where he reached 55 strokes a minute off the blocks, but the rest of the pack proved quicker at lower rates. The veteran Peter Galambos of Hungary led the way to 500m, with Ireland trailing in sixth place. In the closing stages, O’Donovan finally made his move to go past Germany and Spain, but it was all too late, as Galambos took gold ahead of Italy and Poland.

In the women’s pairs, Monika Dukarska and Aileen Crowley qualified the boat for Tokyo by virtue of their placing at the 2019 World Championships, and second place in Friday’s heat increased expectations for yesterday’s final. But double Olympic champion Helen Glover and her partner in the GB boat, Polly Swann, quickly took control of the race and Ireland slipped down the pack to finish sixth.

There was some consolation for world silver medallists Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne in the men’s double sculls, who missed a chance at the medals after a disappointing semi-final on Saturday. In yesterday’s B final, they overhauled the fast-starting Italians to win their race and place seventh in the competition.

The C final of the men’s single sculls, featuring Clonmel’s Daire Lynch, was a carbon copy of Saturday’s semi-final, with Russian Nikolay Pimenov leading the way home ahead of Lynch, who finished in 14th place overall.

“These championships were a significant event for all our athletes and coaches, given the Covid-19 pandemic, but six boats in the A finals was an impressive feat, and the medals won by the four and the lightweight double were a huge boost to our team, who have been training so hard,” acknowledged Michelle Carpenter, chief executive of Rowing Ireland.

The team will now stay in Italy for a month-long training camp, where they will be joined by world champion Sanita Puspure, a significant absentee from the Europeans, to prepare for the Olympic qualifying event and the World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland.