Irish victory in single sculls

ROWING:PAUL O'DONOVAN kept up his 100 per cent record at the World Junior Championships at Dorney Lake in England yesterday when he won his quarter-final of the single sculls with another fine performance.

His win, at the venue for next year’s Olympics rowing regatta, came on the day the Ireland team for the senior World Championships was named – and the big talking point will be the decision not to attempt to qualify a men’s boat for London 2012.

The championships, in Bled in three weeks’ time, are the main Olympic qualification event, and four Irish crews, including an adaptive mixed four, will be sent.

The women’s double scull of Sanita Puspure and Lisa Dilleen and lightweight double of Siobhán McCrohan and Claire Lambe will be in the hunt to qualify their boats for the Olympics. However, the only men’s boat is a lightweight quadruple scull, which is not in an Olympic class.

A lightweight double of Michael Maher and Mark O’Donovan competed at the final World Cup regatta in Lucerne, where they finished 20th. The qualification standard in Bled is a finish in the top 11, and Ireland performance director Martin McElroy said he did not think they would reach this standard.

Both will be part of the lightweight quadruple, where they are joined by Niall Kenny and Justin Ryan – reforming the crew which took a silver medal in the 2010 World Under-23 Championships.

The emphasis in the high-performance programme is very much on young athletes, and 17-year-old O’Donovan is one to look out for in the future.

O’Donovan and Holly Nixon will compete in today’s single sculls semi-finals.