Day Four Of The World Rowing Championships In Amsterdam

Day Four of the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam commenced for the Irish with Paul O'Donovan competing in the quarter finals of the men's lightweight sculls. With an upset in the previous heat caused by the hotly tipped U-23 World medallist Andrew Campbell jrn catching a crab and overturning it has left this field very open.

O'Donovan was in fifth place until 1000 metres mark where he stormed through to catch the Russian sculler who had led off the blocks. A 500m O'Donovan challenged the Danish sculler and rowed through. He finished in 2nd place behind Germany with only .01 of a second between the first and second boats. The UCD based sculler will now go through to the semi-final tomorrow, Thursday at 13:17 Irish time.

The Women's double scull of Helen Walshe and Monika Dukarska had a cracking race. They trailed in third place the whole way and edged ahead at every stroke until the last 200m where their determination finally paid off, they overtook the Romanians who were in second. The USA took first the Irish double second thus gaining them a place in the semi-final tomorrow at 14:37

In the Women's 4- the Irish crew came sixth and will go through to the B final on Friday.

In the final race of the day Sanita Puspure competed in the Womens sculls. Puspure stormed off the start with a lead and kept it all the way until the last 250m where the Russian sculler and Sanita fought it out for first place. Sanita came second in a great strong race and is through to the semifinals at 14:35 tomorrow.