4 days ago
Fintan McCarthy and Konan Pazzaia secure a medal for Ireland in European Rowing Championships
McCarthy has moved up to heavyweight ranks now that the lightweight grade, in which he won two Olympic gold medals, has been removed from the Olympic programme. He did so to great effect in an exciting race which saw the form book thrown in the lake.
Romania are the Olympic champions, and their record-breaking performances in Plovdiv so far made them hot favourites, but it was Ireland who started fast – and Poland fastest of all.
The men in red and white then dominated the race, leaving Italy, Ireland and Romania to fight it out for second and third.
Romania pushed into a clear second with 200 metres to go, while Ireland held off the two former lightweight oarsmen from Italy (Gabriel Soares and Niels Torre) – something McCarthy had become used to doing in his former grade.
'It was the most intensive race of my life,' Poland's Mateusz Biskup said.
The three other Ireland crews in A Finals on Saturday put up good performances, though each missed out on medal spots by a single place.
New Ireland lead coach Dominic Casey said he was happy enough and paid tribute to the team behind the team - coaches, physios, nutritionists, logistics people and team manager.
'We came to find out where we were, and I'm pleased overall,' Casey said.
Ireland have one more ace in the pack, as Fiona Murtagh has a great chance of a medal in the single sculls final on Sunday.
The Ireland women's double took fourth in their doubles final. Mags Cremen, who has moved up from lightweight, and Zoe Hyde showed well early on. They held third behind the Netherlands and Greece all the way to 900 metres. But Romania, who had been tracking them, then pushed past. The Romanians took bronze behind Greece and the Dutch, who took gold.
Izzy Clements showed well early on in her first competitive outing for Ireland. The 21-year-old Scot has an Irish mother and has declared for Ireland. She held second behind Laura Tiefenthaler of Austria right through to 1500 metres of the lightweight single sculls final. But by then Norway's Maia Lund was pushing her out of that position, and the AIN (Individual Neutral Athlete) Mariia Zhovner pushed through to take a very tight third.
Jake McCarthy also took fourth in the men's lightweight single. This was a fast and exciting race: Fabio Kress of Germany led all through, but barely held on to gold under pressure from Halil Kaan Koroglu. Behind them, McCarthy drove hard to get into third around the 1500 metre mark, but was held off by Mikita Karneyeu, the Individual Neutral Athlete), who took the bronze.
The Ireland pair took third in their B Final, ninth overall. Ross Corrigan had partnered Nathan Timoney to the Olympic final at Paris 2024, but with Timoney injured, Corrigan was joined by Daire Lynch, an Olympic medallist in the double in 2024.
Germany were the fastest crew early on, but the Czech pair of Dalibor Nedela and Jakub Podrazil took over the lead in the second quarter and won from there. Ireland pushed for second, but the AIN (Independent Neutral Athletes) edged ahead of them in the last third of the race. Ireland held off a late push by Germany to hold third.
Murtagh, who under Casey's new regime has moved from a crew boat to a single scull, goes in the A Final at 10.13 Irish time on Sunday.
