Brothers take the positives
Brothers miss gold but get lift for Worlds
GARY and Paul O’Donovan said they were ‘a little disappointed’ after missing out on a gold medal at the European Championships in Glasgow yesterday but believe they can go one better at next month’s World Championships in Bulgaria.
The brothers put in a powerful performance in the final of the lightweight double sculls but could not reel in the Norwegian duo of Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli and had to settle for a hard-fought silver.
The Norwegians crossed the finish line two seconds ahead of the Irish boat in 6:20.85 with Italy coming in third, a second behind the O’Donovans.
‘I suppose we are a little bit disappointed with silver but we know the Norwegians are pretty good,’ Paul told RTÉ Sport.
‘The main focus for the year is the World Championships. Usually the Europeans are in May or June so having them a bit later this year gives us a good indicator of what to do, so there is a lot to do over the next few weeks.
‘That will provide some motivation at least,’ he added.
‘It was a tough old race,’ said Gary. ‘We’re just feeling pretty shagged now but we’ll recover in time. We gave it a good old go, tried to get there in front of all of them, but the Norwegians were just too quick.
‘I don’t think we left ourselves with too much to do. We planned to keep within touching distance for the first 500m so we went off pretty hard, and I think we managed that. The plan then was to move through towards the kilometre.
‘We caught the Italians and gained a lot on the Norwegians but I think they’re just a bit fitter and stronger today and they managed to pull away again.’
Despite their disappointment, the O’Donovans (silver medallists at the Rio Olympics in 2016) will feel they can go one better at the World Championships which take place in Bulgaria next month between the 9th and 16th of September.
Earlier yesterday, Ireland’s Aoife Casey and Denise Walsh rowed strongly to secure a second-place finish in the women’s lightweight double sculls, guaranteeing a topeight finish in the European Championships.
Elsewhere, Switzerland’s Jeannine Gmelin and Norway’s Kjetil Borch landed the blue riband single sculls titles.
World champion Gmelin proved again why she is the fastest woman on the water, powering to another emphatic victory just 75 minutes after compatriot Michael Schmid had won the lightweight men’s single sculls
Gmelin, who has become the dominant force in the gladitorial world of single sculling, lifted the world title last year and has continued her magnificent form in an unbeaten 2018 season.
The 28-year-old was again in a different class to her rivals, winning by 1.47 seconds from Austrian Magdalena Lobnig.
The impressive Borch rowed to his major singles title after enjoying previous world championship glory in a double.