Rowing: Three Irish crews in last chance saloon for Olympic qualifying

Ireland's Daire Lynch. Picture: INPHO/Detlev Seyb

Three Irish crews are heading to Switzerland this weekend in a bid to join the four boats who have already secured their spot at the Tokyo Olympics.

The competing boats heading to Lucerne for the final Olympic qualifier are the Men’s Single, Lightweight Women’s Double and Women’s Four.

Daire Lynch will be competing in the Men’s Single, The crew of Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh and Emily Hegarty will be competing in the Women’s Four and Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey will be racing in the Lightweight Women’s Double, confirmed Rowing Ireland’s High-Performance Director, Antonio Maurogiovanni.

Lynch will be competing with 25 others with just two Olympic spots up for grabs, the women's four are among an octet vying for two spots while Cremen and Casey are one of 16 looking to be among the three pairs to reach the Games in Japan.

Lynch had a very successful 2020, winning Gold (U23 ERC) and Bronze (ERC) alongside Ronan Byrne. He won five Irish championships (four singles, one pair) and previously placed eighth at the Junior World Championship.

The women's fours come into the event having won silver at the 2021 European Rowing Championships last month in Varese while at the same event, the women's lightweight double pair finishing in fifth place so are also brining form into the weekend.

There are already four Irish boats already qualified from the 2019 World Rowing Championships.