Latest news with #IndependentNeutralAthletes
Irish Independent
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy reach men's heavyweight double semi-finals at World Cup regatta
The Olympic gold medallists moved up after their lightweight rowing was no longer an Olympic class. McCarthy teamed up with Konan Pazzaia to take bronze at the European Championships last month and the two did enough to qualify from an exciting heat in Lucerne. First and second were guaranteed semi-final places. Azerbaijan led through the first two quarters, but in the third quarter New Zealand grabbed the lead and did not let it go, despite a feisty effort by Ireland, who hit 42 strokes per minute as the line approached but had to settle for second. O'Donovan and his new partner, Daire Lynch, were also involved in a battle coming to the line of their heat and also took second. This time the Independent Neutral Athletes (AIN) crew battled it out with the Irish, and Aleksandr Iakolev and Andrei Potapkin held on to win, by just .24 of a second. The AIN moniker has allowed some athletes from Russia and associated countries to compete. Lynch took bronze at last year's Olympic Games in a double with Philip Doyle, and will hope to step back up to that level. 'Tough enough going. Hopefully we'll get better,' he told after the heat. The morning had started well for Ireland. Fiona Murtagh won the very first race of the day. The Olympic medallist in the four from 2021 came into this heat of the single sculls on the back of a silver at the European Championships and she is revelling in this new discipline for her. She saw off Swiss and Belgian competition to qualify directly for Saturday's semi-final in the second fastest time of the day. 'Bit of a slow start, bit of a headwind out there, so conditions are a bit slow,' Murtagh told 'I was just trying to lock into that rhythm in the middle and get myself going again. Conditions were flat, but looking forward to tomorrow and stepping on again.' Alison Bergin could only finish sixth in the same heat. Repechages have been replaced by a next-best-time system of progression and the Fermoy woman missed out on her chance of staying in the hunt for a medal place and will compete in the D Final. Siobhán McCrohan won her heat of the lightweight single. The 37-year-old took gold and bronze in the last two World Championships. But she was fifth and last early in this race as Valeria Palacios of Peru set a hot pace. If there was a worry that McCrohan's old failing of leaving it too late to sprint was recurring, it was unfounded. She moved through the field, took the lead just after the 1500 metres mark and held it from there. The Ireland women's double of Zoe Hyde and Mags Cremen qualified for the semi-finals. They placed third in a fine race and just missed out on a guaranteed place, but made it through because their time was one of the fastest. Britain looked on course to win but the Greece-Ireland battle for the vital second spot was so hot that Greece beat Britain on the line, with Ireland just behind them. The women's four and the men's quadruple came in at the back of their heats and go directly to B Finals.
The Journal
31-05-2025
- Sport
- The Journal
Ireland's McCarthy and Pazzaia win bronze at European Rowing Championships
IRELAND'S FINTAN MCCARTHY and Konan Pazzaia won bronze in the men's double sculls at the European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Double Olympic lightweight champion McCarthy, making his debut in the heavyweight class, added yet another European medal to his glittering CV on Saturday morning. With Pazzaia taking the place of McCarthy's regular partner Paul O'Donovan, the Irish crew finished third (6:05.48) behind Poland's Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup (6:02.93) and reigning Olympic and European champions Andrei Cornea and Florian Enache of Romania (6:03.87). Earlier on Saturday, three Irish boats were just edged out of the medals as they finished an agonising fourth in their respective A finals. Izzy Clements, Jake McCarthy, and Zoe Hyde and Mags Cremens all came up empty-handed after a string of fourth-place finishes. Clements, 21, had already impressed on her senior Irish debut in the lightweight women's single sculls by qualifying for the final with the second-fastest time overall. The Scottish-born rower made a strong start to Saturday morning's final and sat second at the half-way mark behind Austria's Lara Tiefenthaler. Advertisement But Clements started to fade in the back half of the race and quickly came under pressure from Norway's Maia Lund and Mariia Zhovner, competing under the flag of the Independent Neutral Athletes. Tiefenthaler pulled clear to win gold in 7:29.38, with Lund (7:31.76) just shading Zhovner (7:31.79) for silver by three-hundredths of a second. Clements finished two seconds further back in fourth in a time of 7:34.29. Jake McCarthy — twin brother of Fintan — came up just short despite a late push in the men's lightweight single sculls final. Pre-race favourite Fabio Kress held on for gold (6:51.24) as Turkey's Halil Kaan Koroglu (6:51.63) closed on him in the final strokes. Bronze went to Mikita Karneyeu of the Independent Neutral Athletes (7:00.23) with McCarthy a second adrift in fourth (7:01.45). In the women's double sculls, Hyde and Cremen (6:55.73) finished fourth behind new European champions Roos de Jong and Tessa Dullemans of the Netherlands (6:48.83). Dimitra Kontou and Zoi Fitsou of Greece were squeezed out of a tight finish into silver (6:49.11), with Andrada-Maria Morosanu and Mariana-Laura Dumitru of Romania taking bronze (6:51.96) ahead of Hyde and Cremen. Ireland will have one more shot at a medal on Sunday when Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Fiona Murtagh goes in the A final of the women's single sculls (10.13am). Written by Niall Kelly and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won't find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women's sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here .
The 42
31-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Ireland's McCarthy and Pazzaia win bronze at European Rowing Championships
IRELAND'S FINTAN MCCARTHY and Konan Pazzaia won bronze in the men's double sculls at the European Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Double Olympic lightweight champion McCarthy, making his debut in the heavyweight class, added yet another European medal to his glittering CV on Saturday morning. With Pazzaia taking the place of McCarthy's regular partner Paul O'Donovan, the Irish crew finished third (6:05.48) behind Poland's Miroslaw Zietarski and Mateusz Biskup (6:02.93) and reigning Olympic and European champions Andrei Cornea and Florian Enache of Romania (6:03.87). Earlier on Saturday, three Irish boats were just edged out of the medals as they finished an agonising fourth in their respective A finals. Izzy Clements, Jake McCarthy, and Zoe Hyde and Mags Cremens all came up empty-handed after a string of fourth-place finishes. Clements, 21, had already impressed on her senior Irish debut in the lightweight women's single sculls by qualifying for the final with the second-fastest time overall. Advertisement The Scottish-born rower made a strong start to Saturday morning's final and sat second at the half-way mark behind Austria's Lara Tiefenthaler. But Clements started to fade in the back half of the race and quickly came under pressure from Norway's Maia Lund and Mariia Zhovner, competing under the flag of the Independent Neutral Athletes. Tiefenthaler pulled clear to win gold in 7:29.38, with Lund (7:31.76) just shading Zhovner (7:31.79) for silver by three-hundredths of a second. Clements finished two seconds further back in fourth in a time of 7:34.29. Jake McCarthy — twin brother of Fintan — came up just short despite a late push in the men's lightweight single sculls final. Pre-race favourite Fabio Kress held on for gold (6:51.24) as Turkey's Halil Kaan Koroglu (6:51.63) closed on him in the final strokes. Bronze went to Mikita Karneyeu of the Independent Neutral Athletes (7:00.23) with McCarthy a second adrift in fourth (7:01.45). In the women's double sculls, Hyde and Cremen (6:55.73) finished fourth behind new European champions Roos de Jong and Tessa Dullemans of the Netherlands (6:48.83). Dimitra Kontou and Zoi Fitsou of Greece were squeezed out of a tight finish into silver (6:49.11), with Andrada-Maria Morosanu and Mariana-Laura Dumitru of Romania taking bronze (6:51.96) ahead of Hyde and Cremen. Ireland will have one more shot at a medal on Sunday when Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Fiona Murtagh goes in the A final of the women's single sculls (10.13am).
The 42
31-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Irish crews narrowly miss out on medals at European Championships
THREE IRISH BOATS were just edged out of the medals at the European Rowing Championships as they finished an agonising fourth in their respective A finals. Izzy Clements, Jake McCarthy, and Zoe Hyde and Mags Cremens all came up empty-handed after a string of fourth-place finishes in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on Saturday morning. Clements, 21, had already impressed on her senior Irish debut in the lightweight women's single sculls by qualifying for the final with the second-fastest time overall. The Scottish-born rower made a strong start to Saturday morning's final and sat second at the half-way mark behind Austria's Lara Tiefenthaler. But Clements started to fade in the back half of the race and quickly came under pressure from Norway's Maia Lund and Mariia Zhovner, competing under the flag of the Independent Neutral Athletes. Tiefenthaler pulled clear to win gold in 7:29.38, with Lund (7:31.76) just shading Zhovner (7:31.79) for silver by three-hundredths of a second. Advertisement Clements finished two seconds further back in fourth in a time of 7:34.29. Later on Saturday, McCarthy — twin brother of double Olympic champion Fintan — came up just short despite a late push in the men's lightweight single sculls final. Pre-race favourite Fabio Kress held on for gold (6:51.24) as Turkey's Halil Kaan Koroglu (6:51.63) closed on him in the final strokes. Bronze went to Mikita Karneyeu of the Independent Neutral Athletes (7:00.23) with McCarthy a second adrift in fourth (7:01.45). In the women's double sculls, Hyde and Cremen (6:55.73) finished fourth behind new European champions Roos de Jong and Tessa Dullemans of the Netherlands (6:48.83). Dimitra Kontou and Zoi Fitsou of Greece were squeezed out of a tight finish into silver (6:49.11), with Andrada-Maria Morosanu and Mariana-Laura Dumitru of Romania taking bronze (6:51.96) ahead of Hyde and Cremen. More to follow…
