SPORT IRELAND HAPPY WITH CRONIN PUNISHMENT
THE sibling rivalries will count as an advantage when the boats hit the water again today.
Relaxation of government restrictions sees sports such as canoeing and rowing resuming – good news for some who have seen their Tokyo Games dreams pushed back a year. Given its place at the heart of Ireland’s recent rowing success, Skibbereen will be a
hotbed of activity. The
Olympic silver medal won in Rio by charismatic O’donovan brothers Paul and Gary put the west Cork club on the map and now, after living together under lockdown, they can work away in their lightweight double scull as training resumes.
So too can the Mccarthy twins Fintan (left) and Jake who live nearby while a fifth Skibbereen man, former world champion Shane O’driscoll (right), also harbours Olympic hopes. Competing in the quad boat at the
RUGBY UNION PROP CLEAR TO RETURN
SPORT Ireland will not be appealing Munster prop James Cronin’s month-long ban for a doping violation.
It asked for the full case file last week after an EPCR investigation resulted in the suspension that Cronin completed last Saturday.
He had failed an anti-doping test after Munster’s Champions Cup clash with Racing 92 last November and was ruled to have unintentionally taken two banned 2018 World Championships, the Mccarthys feared Tokyo was beyond their reach as they witnessed the O’donovans claim gold in Bulgaria.
Last August, however, Fintan memorably partnered Paul to World Championships gold in Austria.
He recalled: “We were looking at them winning the Worlds saying, ‘Oh my God that would be unreal but it’s going to be so hard to break in, they’re world champions’. Watching it with one of my old coaches I admitted, corticosteroids before the game. EPCR investigator Anthony Davies was satisfied that the 29-year-old (left) had provided sufficient evidence to show he was prescribed the wrong medicine by a pharmacy.
An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport could have taken six months – and the highest sanction would have been three months – but Sport Ireland now believe that the investigation was sufficient. “The case file was ‘There’s no way I’m going to be able to do that’. He said, ‘You’ve got to think that if you get into that boat then it’ll be a super-fast double if you’re making the World Championship boat faster’. From then on I looked at it that way.”
The breakthrough came with his twin last June. Fintan started rowing seriously in 2013 and Jake followed suit a year later.
With Gary O’donovan in New Zealand and Paul O’donovan committed quite comprehensive, there was a lot of evidence provided to us,” Dr Una May, head of Sport Ireland’s anti-doping programme told Mirrorsport. “It’s very clear that this is a very low sanction kind of a case – and low sanction is generally between one and three months.
“We’re aware that WADA were consulted in the decision around what the proposed sanction would be. Bringing all those factors together we would have preferred if it wasn’t as small as one month but, in order to get two months added to it, it just doesn’t seem appropriate.”
Sport Ireland (inset) will now meet Munster and the IRFU to discuss the case implications.
Dr May added: “We’re happy to support if there’s any follow up investigation by the Pharmaceutical Society Of Ireland.”