Three Irish rowing crews will be aiming to qualify their boats for the Tokyo Olympics at this weekend’s Lucerne World Cup regatta in Switzerland.
Four Irish boats are already assured of places in the Olympic regatta having qualified at the 2019 World championships. The boats aiming to join them this weekend are the men’s single, the lightweight women’s double and women’s four.
Clonmel native Daire Lynch, who is a student at Yale University in the US, competes in the men’s singles. Twenty-six crews have entered but there are only two slots available.
This is Lynch’s first season competing on the international stage in the singles. Last year, he partnered Ronan Byrne to win gold in the U-23 European championship and bronze in the senior event.
At the recent European championships, he finished second in the C final.
Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh and Emily Hegarty have been selected as the crew for the women’s four. Eight nations will be competing for the two available Olympic slots.
At last month’s European championships in Varese, the Irish quartet won the silver medal.
Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey will be racing in the lightweight doubles in Lucerne. There are sixteen crews bidding for three Olympic slots. The pair finished 5th in the A final at last month’s European championships.
Racing begins on Saturday with the finals scheduled for Monday morning.
Regardless of how the crews fare at the weekend, Ireland already has the highest number of boats qualified for the Olympics with the women’s singles, the women’s pair, the men’s double and the lightweight men’s double all Tokyo bound.
