Smooth waters so far for majority of Irish rowing hopefuls

Sanita Pupure on her way to finishing 1st in the women’s single sculls quarter-final in Tokyo, Japan. She was the only Irish representative in 2012 but there are 13 in Japan.Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Skibbereen has earned its status as the breadbasket of Irish rowing but it isn’t the only locale harvesting talent for Team Ireland.

Scoil Bhríde, Eglantine in Douglas is something of a bulk supplier to this Olympic Games and what makes it more remarkable is the spread of sporting talent that has passed through its classrooms.

Margaret Cremen is competing in the women’s lightweight double sculls at the Sea Forest Waterway, Louise Shanahan will run in the 800m at the Olympic Stadium while Meg Ryan and her coach Emma Hamill were on duty at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on Sunday.

“That’s pretty cool, that there are four of us here at the Olympics,” said Cremen after qualifying for the semi-finals alongside Aoife Casey. There’s Meg Ryan, Louise Shanahan and Meg’s coach as well so that’s pretty cool. It’s very unusual.”

Cremen can’t be sure how or why a primary school could hothouse that sort of talent. A sports-orientated culture certainly had some part to play in it and the school itself is adorned right now with a banner celebrating the achievements of their past pupils.

What would await Cremen if she can push on with Casey and make the final is another thing. Underdogs in qualifying for the Games, they are not among the perceived medal contenders in this Irish rowing team, but Casey insisted they are “ready” for the next round.

They are clearly benefiting from their involvement in the wider rowing effort.

Sanita Puspure was Ireland’s only representative on the water at the 2012 Games. Now there are 13 of them here, not including travelling reserves, and there are at least three good medal shouts among the boats.

Momentum is a great thing.

That said, this regatta has been put on hold until Wednesday — this on the back of races that had been due brought forward to Sunday — in light of the approaching Tropical Storm Nepartak, but what follows will hopefully be four days of medal races.

Puspure has been in exceptional form in her first two races, her win pushing her through to an Olympic semi-final at the third time of asking and breaking what she light-heartedly referred to on TV as a “curse”.

Joining her centre stage in the coming week will be a men’s lightweight double sculls pairing of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy that has been equally imperious so far. All three of those rowers will have gold on their minds come midweek.

The other big contender at Sea Forest Waterway is the women’s four of Aifric Keogh, Emily Hegarty, Fiona Murtagh and Eimear Lambe. They caught the eye with a superb semi-final effort when they went stroke for stroke with the fancied Australians.

“There’s such a good buzz around Rowing Ireland at the minute because there’s so much success,” said Casey. “We’re not really focusing on results so much, it’s moreso just the process of it.

“So we’d just be asking, ‘How did your race go? Did you do your best race?’ And you’re happy with that then. It’s really good to see everyone doing so well and doing their best. That’s all you can do really.”

All six Irish crews in action here made it through to the semi-finals but the obvious disappointment has been the inability of Ronan Byrne and Philip Doyle to find the form that won them a silver medal at the World Championships in Linz in 2019.

The double sculls pairing had impressed at the regatta in Lucerne. That came after a difficult European Championships when Doyle returned to the boat in a competitive setting for the first time having stepped away to work as a doctor during the pandemic.

They have raced three times now in Tokyo, but simply haven’t found their stride in the heat, the repechage or the semi-final when they finished last of four. A medal is now beyond them as they turn instead towards a B final.