Glittering weekend for Irish juniors at Coupe de la Jeunesse

Two gold medals, two silvers and a bronze – it was an excellent weekend for Ireland at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, the European junior tournament at Szeged in Hungary.

The junior quadruple of Colm Hennessy, Eoghan Whittle, Patrick Munnelly and Andrew Goff came home with gold on both Saturday and Sunday, while the young junior double of Aoife Casey and Emily Hegarty took silver on Saturday and Sunday, when they had to battle in a strong headwind.

Dervla Forde, who had been, surprisingly, out of the medals on the Saturday, took bronze in the single sculls on Sunday, holding off Eszter Kremer of Hungary by .85 of a second.

The quadruple were taking their third Coupe gold, as they had reached the top step on the podium as a young crew in 2014 in France.

They might have been heading for Rio, and the World Junior Championships, this week, and Ireland coach Pat McInerney, who put the crew together, said it would have been the obvious next step. But the cost had been crucial in this being shot down. “It would have been €3,000 a man,” he said.

Ireland will host the Coupe de la Jeunesse in 2018.