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Two Irish teams took silver at the U-23 World Rowing Championships and of six participating teams, four made it to the A-final and two made the B-final.
Lison Bergin started in the women’s single scull B final and finished third with a time of 8: 06.47 hours, while boats from the Netherlands and Italy took first and second place, Bergin came third.
Hugh Moore started in the LM1x B final and finished fourth with a time of 7:18.71 after leading the start of the race before being overtaken by the American, Danish and German boats after the 1,250 mark.
Ross Corrigan, John Kearney, Alex Byrne and Jack Dorney won silver in the M4 A final. They started the race from the front, but the Canadian boat closed the gap and took first place.
Cliodhna Nolan was fourth in the LW1x A final. Nolan faced tough competition with crews from Italy, Russia, Greece, Germany and Austria. Eoin Gaffney and Rory O’Neill drove for Irish crews in the final race of the day in the LM2x A final. Eoin and Rory finished fourth behind crews from Germany, France and Belgium.
The four with helmsman won silver in the A final on Saturday afternoon. Finn O’Reilly, Andrew Sheehan, Ryan Spelman, Adam Murphy and Leah O’Regan (helmsman) finished second behind the Italian crew with a time of 6: 12.84.
Murphy leads the Irish medal frenzy on track
Kelly Murphy led an Irish medalist in Russia by taking her second gold medal in the Track Cycling Nations Cup in St. Petersburg on Saturday night.
In the individual pursuit of the elite women, Murphy clearly won ahead of Russian Alena Ivanchenko in a time of 3: 30.422. Her Irish team-mate Mia Griffin also stood on the podium after a convincing victory in the race for the bronze medal.
Murphy and Griffin were part of the Irish team chase squad, along with Lara Gillespie and Alice Sharpe, which won gold on Thursday.
Gillespie was also back on the podium on Saturday when she won a bronze medal in the Omnium, while Orla Walsh finished a strong fifth in the 500m time trial.
Rain stops excitement in World Cup qualifier
Andy Balbirnie and William Porterfield struck half a century yesterday in a greatly improved Irish batting performance at Malahide before the rain forced the abandonment of the first of three World Cup qualifiers against South Africa.
Although the boys in green will happily accept some of the 10 points offered against a team that is expected to win all three Super League encounters, a total of 195-4 out of 40.2 overs were competitive and would have resulted in a surprise win being able to lead.
After an unusually calm Paul Stirling left for 13 of 40 balls, Balbirnie and Porterfield added 87 for the second wicket, a record-breaking Ireland partnership against South Africa.
Porterfield, who appeared to have played his last international match after failing twice and knocking out the Netherlands last month, used his recall to hit 63 of 87 balls before a reverse sweep in the hands of the first slip over glove and forearm ended.
“It was brilliant to see William in such a good position, he and Stirlo did really well in the early stages when it was difficult and dark against a high-profile opening attack,” said Balbirnie.
The skipper himself gained some fluency again with six limits in his 65, and with Harry Tector beating star paceman Kagiso Rabado for six over mid-wicket and Mark Adair with another two maxima, Ireland stacked 47 of its last 4.2 Overs before the rain ended their fun.
Positive test ruins Matsuyama’s open chances
Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama has retired from this week’s Open Championship after a positive coronavirus test.
The 29-year-old from Japan has been isolating himself since testing positive at Rocket Mortgage Classic on July 2.
“I’m fine, but I couldn’t practice,” said Matsuyama.
Also on Sunday, the two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson withdrew because of a positive close contact test on Covid.
In a post on Twitter, Watson said he was disappointed to miss the Open and added “good luck to all players”.
Matsuyama said he continued to produce positive results despite being symptom-free.
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