David O’Malley and Shane Mulvaney won a bronze medal at the World Under-23 Championships in 2017 and the lightweight pair are on track to represent Ireland at this level again this season. The UCD men impressed on both days of the Ireland trial at the National Rowing Centre.
The event had to be cut short on Sunday because of high winds and poor conditions on the water, but Antonio Maurogiovanni, the Ireland high performance director, said the athletes had shown they were able for a tough challenge.
Monika Dukarska was one of the top performers in the single sculls and was trialled with Aileen Crowley in a double. Sanita Puspure was allowed not to compete because of an injury niggle. Maurogiovanni confirmed that Puspure and Dukarska had been tried in a double at the recent training camp in Italy.
The under-23 pair of Emily Hegarty and Tara Hanlon did well in Saturday’s six kilometre time trial, and were trialled in a four with Crowley and Aifric Keogh, the Ireland senior pair. The top performer in the time trial was under-23 lightweight Andrew Goff. Coach Dominic Casey said that the trial had shown that there was “a healthy group of lightweights”. “The next trial will tell us a lot more,” he added.
New Ireland heavyweight coach David McKenzie McGowan said that he was disappointed there had not been a bigger turnout of heavyweights. “This is a moment when athletes get to shine. We want to see them.”
Patrick Boomer has been based in Australia and Maurogiovanni said he has helped the big Ireland heavyweight in receiving coaching in Tasmania from John Driessen, coach of the bronze medal-winning men’s quadruple at the London Olympics.
Back in Ireland, there will be a camp for invited athletes in two weeks’ time.
The National Rowing Centre hosted a visiting delegation from the Coupe de la Jeunesse at the weekend. In an extraordinary delegate meeting in Cork it was decided that Denmark would join as the 14th country which can compete in the European junior tournament. The NRC will host the Coupe in July.
The St Michael’s Head of the River on Saturday in Limerick gave the UCD intermediate men’s eight a fillip – they were faster than NUIG’s senior eight and the fastest crew overall.
Ireland Trial, National Rowing Centre (Six kilometre time trial; selected results; ranked by percentage of projected world best time. Results of 2K trials not published)
1 A Goff (UCD; under-23 lightweight single) 24 mins 00.3 secs (83.32 per cent), 2 R Byrne (UCC; under-23 single) 23:44.1 (83.0), 3 J McCarthy (Skibbereen; u23 lwt single) 24.18.9 (82.25), 4 R Ballantine (Newcastle/Enniskillen; lwt single) 24:23.1 (82.02) 5 S Mulvaney, D O’Malley (UCD; u-23 lwt pair) 23:06.0 (81.82), 6 E Hegarty, T Hanlon (UCC; under-23 women’s pair) 25.14.5 (81.81), 7 A Crowley, A Keogh (UCC/Old Collegians; women’s pair 25:04.3 (81.17), 8 M Dukarska (Killorglin; women’s single) 26.07.4 (81.15), 9 A Harrington (Shandon/UCC; single) 23.54.6 (81.14), 10 A Casey (Skibbereen; u-23 lwt women’s single) 27:05.8 (80.45)
