Casey and Cremen keep the Olympic dream alive

Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen topped the rankings at the Ireland trial on Sunday and kept open the possibility of an Ireland women's lightweight double going to the Olympic qualification regatta in May. A decision will be made in January.

Ireland high performance director Antonio Maurogiovanni was pleased with the performance of the women's four and the pairs he trialled. Should the four qualify for Tokyo, six women will cover the already-qualified pair and the four.

Paul O'Donovan, Sanita Puspure and Molly Curry were absent, though all were excused. Curry is set to take part in one of three regional camps for juniors and under-23 athletes.

Kenny McDonald set a new world record at the Provinces Indoor Rowing competition at the University of Limerick. His mark of three minutes and eight tenths of a second for 1,000 metres was one tenth of a second inside the old mark for lightweight men aged 40-49.