Different looking Ireland team for World Cup regatta at Dorney Lake

Claire Lambe may be joined by two new crews

Ireland’s Claire Lambe who will compete in the World Cup regatta at the Olympic venue of Dorney Lake in two weeks.


The Ireland team for the World Cup regatta at the Olympic venue of Dorney Lake in two weeks' time will be very different from that which took to the water for last weekend's European Championships in Seville.

Sanita Puspure, who had to pull out of her European semi-final due to illness, is undergoing tests and will not be competing at the venue in which she represented Ireland last year at the Olympic Games, and neither the men’s lightweight double (21st in Seville) nor single sculler John Keohane (17th) will be going forward.

Lightweight sculler Claire Lambe, who finished fourth at the Europeans, will compete. She may be joined by two new crews. Leonora Kennedy, the Enniskillen woman who recently joined the Ireland system from the British one, and Monika Dukarska could form a double scull, while a men's lightweight single sculler may also take part. Prospective crews will be tested at the National Rowing Centre.

International rowing could have a new competition in two years’ time. Delegates from European rowing nations gathered in Seville last weekend heard a presentation by Dermot Henihan, representing the European Olympic Committees, on the European Games in Baku in Azerbaijan in 2015. Rowing has been invited, and while there are major logistical demands (there is no course in Baku), Fisa is generally clever in finding ways around challenges.

Liam Gorman

Liam Gorman

Liam Gorman is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in rowing