IRELAND WILL HAVE at least four medal chances at the European Rowing Championships, with three more crews still hoping to join their team-mates in Sunday’s finals.
Friday’s impressive slate of performances was capped by the women’s four of Emily Hegarty, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh who their heat and also finished with the fastest qualifying time of the day (06:36.98).
Lydia Heaphy also has her sights set on the podium in the lightweight women’s single scull after she led from wire to wire to win her heat in a time of 07:50.15.
In the heats of the lightweight men’s single scull, Skibbereen’s Gary O’Donovan’s second-place finish in 07:07.23 was enough to see him straight through to the A final.
While the women’s pair of Monika Dukarska and Aileen Crowley also qualified for the A final after they chased home the Romanian crew to finish second in their heat in 07:22.04.
Reigning world champions Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy are among the Irish boats back on the water in Saturday’s A/B semi-finals after they cruised through Friday’s heats as the fastest qualifiers in a time of 06:54.75.
Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen are first out on Saturday when they go in the A/B semi-final of the lightweight women’s double. Casey and Cremen finished Friday’s heat in second place behind the Netherlands in a time of 07:56:00.
The men’s double of Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne will also line up in the A/B semis after finishing second in their heat and then second in the repechage to secure their place.
Daire Lynch will compete in the C/D semi-final of the men’s single scull after finishing fourth in Friday’s repechage.
Saturday
9.37am/9.44am – LW2x A/B Semi-Final – Aoife Casey & Margaret Cremen
9.51am/9.58am – LM2x A/B Semi-Final – Paul O’Donovan & Fintan McCarthy
11.35am/11.42am – M2x A/B Semi-Final – Phil Doyle & Ronan Byrne
1.27pm/1.34pm – M1x C/D Semi-Final – Daire Lynch
Sunday
9.51am – LW1 A Final – Lydia Heaphy
10.06am – LM1x A Final – Gary O’Donovan
11.21am – W2 A Final – Monika Dukarska & Aileen Crowley
12.21pm – W4 A Final – Emily Hegarty, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh & Fiona Murtagh
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Stupid idea to move minors to u17. Far too much of a gap between 17and 21 year olds. Would end up losing more players to other sports at the critical 18-20 age bracket. Minor championship is fantastic the way it is please don’t touch it.
RE plan for minor to be u17 whats happens to u16. Does this also mean that u21 is only open to those above 19.
I agree with nearly all their ideas.
Why not have the League Finals on St. Patrick’s Day?
Their reasoning for moving the Minor grade is sound. I would imagine they’ll move to an under 20 grade too, this would probably mean less clashes with senior games.
Why not play the Inter-Provincials around the time of the All-Ireland quarter finals or semi finals? With only a few counties still in the All-Ireland and club championships notoriously slow to get going there will be many inter county standard footballers willing to play top class competition.
Players just missing the cut in their home county should definitely be placed in a draft from which the weaker counties can pick. 4 players for Division 4 counties, 3 for Division 3 counties. After two seasons the players should be allowed reapply for their native county or else extend their draft period by another year.
A draft system similar to that in American sports is the obvious way to bolster the weaker counties. Keep the draft players within their native province to cut down travel times, I can’t see an issue with a couple of Dubs playing with Carlow for two years, Mayomen with Leitrim or Corkmen with Waterford. The players involved get to play in high quality competition and bring that experience back to their native counties, everybody’s a winner.
I’ll outline how the FRC could fix the Football Championships below. Eugene McGee could drop me a line and we’ll hammer out the finer details together!
The optimum system for the All-Ireland Football Championship should be:
A) Get rid of the January/February tournaments, move the League forward with the top 2 playing a League final in March.
B) The All-Ireland C’ship should be played like the World Cup. 33 teams in 7 groups of 4 and 1 group of 5. Seed the teams according to their finishing positions in the League, thereby linking the League and C’ship. Play the 3(4) round robin stage matches of the All-Ireland at neutral venues (except for New York and London who should play their matches at home) in April and May.
C) The 4 Provincial C’ships should be straight knock-out. They should be played in May/June, it may be necessary for the preliminary rounds of the Ulster and Leinster C’ships to overlap with the round robin stage of the All-Ireland. These titles remain a valid chance for meaningful silverware for all counties.
D) With the Provincial titles decided the All-Ireland C’ship Round of 16 takes place in late June, group winners getting the choice of home venue. Two weeks later the 1/4 Finals are held at neutral venues. Two weeks later the Semi Finals are held at Croke Park.
E) In mid August play the All-Ireland Football Final in glorious sunshine in Croke Park. All counties would have had at least 4 c’ship matches spread throughout the country. All counties would have had two shots at meaningful silverware. London and New York have a few home matches each year to spread the gospel of GAA. There are no dead rubbers.