Four Irish women's crew won European rowing silver medals

 

    Ireland’s Eimear Lambe, Tara Hanlon, Afric Keogh and Natalie Long celebrate with their silver medals. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh, Tara Hanlon, and Natalie Long won the silver medal as the A-finals got under way on Saturday at the Olympic regatta venue, putting forth their customary aggressive and determined effort to open Ireland's medal account at the 2022 multi-sport European Championships in Munich.

The British boat, the pre-race favourites who won gold at both of the World Cups they competed in earlier in the season in Belgrade and Poznan, narrowly edged out the Irish boat in the thrilling race.

The Irish women's strategy was gutsy and bold, and the silver medal was unquestionably well deserved. At 500 metres, the British crew calmly followed behind, and by the halfway point of the race, they had pulled far ahead. The British boat completed in 6:50.92, 2.07 seconds ahead of the Irish, and 2.91 seconds ahead of Romania. Sill Lambe, Keogh, Hanlon, and Long remained focused on their respective objective and finished with a clear lead.

The European silver for Lambe and Keogh complements their Olympic bronze from Tokyo last summer, and it is unlikely to be the Irish team's final prize. On Saturday, there were 11 medal events, and on Sunday, there will be another 12.

The British four were stunning champions; in Poznan, they triumphed by six seconds while also setting a new World Cup record.

Regarding the Irish racing strategy, Keogh remarked, "We are very much second-half racers, that's very much been our strength in the past." "We're attempting something fresh this weekend. We are attempting to be bold by charging ahead in the first half before, hopefully, regaining our composure. Although we probably still haven't perfected anything, this weekend taught us a lot, and we can continue to improve going forward.

Lambe may have felt under pressure given her history of winning Olympic medals, but she didn't view it that way: "Not really, to be honest. We were excellent. Coming into it, we were aware of our disadvantage. At the World Cup (in Poznan), we were able to win the bronze medal, but I don't believe it was what was anticipated. We made an effort not to worry about the fact that, on the outside, people thought of us as a medal chance. The entire time, it was just our crew and our attention.

Although they have only been working together for a month and a half, the four rowers have set their sights on the World Championships in the Czech Republic the following month. Long and Hanlon will only get better with time.

Since Tara and I are brand-new to the crew, we are still adjusting to rowing alongside Olympic medalists and raising our game, but we also understand that pressure is a privilege and that if there is pressure on us, it means we are capable of doing amazing things.

"At this point, Lambe and Keogh are carrying us. We are extremely appreciative of them for whipping us into shape over the past few weeks and for having such a large group to enable us to achieve that when we came down to Cork. We are fortunate to have what we do because not many teams have that strength in depth to take a break for a few months and then come back as a really fast crew.

The women's pair of Emily Hegarty and Fiona Murtagh, who were also rowers in the women's four in Tokyo last summer, finished fourth in their final earlier in the morning.

The Irish team of Eimear Lambe, Tara Hanlon, Aifric Keogh, Natalie Long admitted they did "suffer a bit" from their strong start but still happy to take silver at @ECMunich2022 @RowingIreland #munich2022 #rtesport pic.twitter.com/WGAKw4inbm

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 13, 2022

The duo of Ioana Vrinceanu and Denisa Tilvescu, who just turned 26 years old, overtook Britain late in the race, and Romania emerged as the rather unexpected champions. Both rowers were formerly a part of the Romanian eight.

They finished in 7:34.41, 1.79 seconds faster than Emily Ford and Esme Booth of the United Kingdom. The Irish team finished in fourth position with a 10.72 second deficit. Greece came in fifth and Croatia in sixth. 

The Irish women's crews' shifting lineup was due to several factors, according to Lambe: "Tomorrow we might be in different boats. We all need to always strive to be our best, so they kind of keep us on our toes. There is a lot of mobility and anything can change during the season because there isn't time to relax and get comfortable in a spot. That is what motivates us to work out hard.

"It was a fantastic moment six years ago when the first crew boat for women's rowing made it to the Olympic final. Six years later, we're in an incredible position where we can field an eight-person crew against nations that are twice or three times our size. It's incredible how much rowing has advanced, especially since the lads took home the medal in Rio.

The men's lightweight quadruple sculls final included just two teams, Italy and Germany, and was one of the other finals that was rather understated.

In the lightweight double sculls on Sunday, Fintan McCarthy and Paul O'Donovan will try to increase their medal total.

Sunday also saw the women's single sculls. Steven McGovern and Katie O'Brien compete in the PR2 mixed double sculls final, Aoife Casey is also in the final, and the women's lightweight double sculls are the last to compete. Lydia Heaphy and Margaret Cremen are in the final.

Irish crew final times (all times Irish)

Sunday —

10:36 Women’s single sculls A final (Aoife Casey)

10:52: PR2 Mixed double sculls final (Steven McGovern and Katie O’Brien)

11.26: Men’s lightweight double sculls A final (Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy)

11.43: Women’s lightweight double sculls A final (Lydia Heaphy and Margaret Cremen)