ROWING Irish Rowing duo finish fourth at European Rowing Championships

Ireland's rowing duo, Claire Lambe (UCD) and Siobhan McCrohan (Tribesmen Rowing Club) fought their way to the top table of a fiercely competitive event at the European Rowing Championships at Montemor-O-Velho in Portugal this weekend, eventually finishing fourth in the final of the lightweight women's double scull.

The duo had challenged for second place throughout much of the race in this Olympic class boat.. It was the slow starting Germans, one of the fast crews in the event, who found their speed going into the last quarter, overhauling Ireland.

"Whilst there may be immediate disappointment, the result is a major step forward", claimed Performance Director, Martin McElroy.

Claire Lambe, a 20 year old mechanical engineering student at UCD was philosophical about the result, "A medal would have been great but overall I'm really pleased with the progress we've made this year. We've shown that we can be compete with the best. I'm looking forward to training next winter and coming back even stronger than this year."

Niall Kenny (Skibbereen RC) and Mark O'Donovan (NUIG) rowing in a lightweight men's double scull finished tenth overall, a very respectable performance for these two young athletes who earlier this season were silver medallists at the World Under 23 Championship in the quadruple scull.

Ireland's 2010 international regatta season draws to a close with this regatta as the team management have chosen not to attend the world championships to be held in New Zealand in November. Performance Director Martin McElroy, an experienced coach who coached Great Britain's men's eight to a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics justified the strategy "It's been a long season for this young team. Crews have had the opportunity to race world class opposition throughout the season so we know where we stand and the work we have to do. With the world championships being so late in the season, racing on into November would sacrifice our winter training where all the key work is laid down for the following season."

He added, "Overall, we've made very significant progress this season with a very young group of athletes. Much is changing in the way we structure and run our programmes in order to create a true performance environment. Excuses are out, performance is in"