Ireland claim 4 medals at 2024 World Rowing Championships
Ireland wrapped up a successful week in the water at the 2024 World Rowing Championships in St.Catherine's, Canada with a haul of 4 medals including 2 golds and 2 bronze.
The highlight of the performances came from double Olympic champion, Paul O'Donovan, who claimed his third world title in the men's senior lightweight singles category.
Reigning champion Siobhán McCrohan claimed another medal in the women's senior lightweight single sculls, this time having to settle for the bronze medal behind 2022 champion and Olympic medalist, Ionela Cozmiuc of Romania.
In the Under 23 category, Ireland's Ciaran Purdy and Donnacha Keeley carried on the fantastic success of Irish men's lightweight rowing by claiming gold in the lightweight double sculls.
Meanwhile Brian Colsh partnered with Adam Murphy to claim the bronze in the men's heavyweight doubles sculls.
There were no medals for Ireland in the under 19 categories, but they did have a few creditable results, including a 4th place finish for the junior men's quadruple sculls squad.
Overall a good championships for Ireland with plenty of young blood to keep the success and momentum going into the future.
World Senior Championships:
Gold
Men's Lightweight Single Sculls
Paul O'Donovan (30)
Bronze
Women's Lightweight Single Sculls
Siobhán McCrohan (37)
World U23 Championships:
Gold
Men's Lightweight Double Sculls
Ciaran Purdy (22), Donnacha Keeley (20)
Bronze
Men's Double Sculls
Adam Murphy (21), Brian Colsh (22)
6th Place
Men's Single Sculls
Andrew Sheehan (21)
6th Place
Women's Lightweight Double Sculls
Sophia Monahan (19), Aine O'Mahony (22)
7th Place
Men's Quadruple Sculls
Shane Rafferty (19), Fergus Bryce (20), Donagh Claffey (20), Fionn O'Reilly (21)
B Final (DNS)
Women's Double Sculls
Holly Davis (19), Grace Healy (21)
14th Place
Men's Four
Andrew O'Leary (19), Luke Dunleavy (21), Liam Walter (19), Rory Buckley (20)
World U19 Championships:
4th Place
Men's Quadruple Sculls
Michael McGrath (17), Jack Rafferty (17), Rian Claffey (18), Sean Morris (18)
5th Place
Men's Coxed Four
Dominic Casey (18), Mattias Cogan (16), Michael Daniel Lucey (18), Evan O'Byrne (16), Luke Fitzgerald (Cox) (17)
7th Place
Women's Double Sculls
Anna Brennan (18), Moya Knowles (18)
Israel Olatunde set a new Irish NR in the 100m at the NEB Open meeting in London this afternoon. His time of 10.12 secs (+1.7 m/s) carved 0.05 secs off his current Irish record which he set at the European Championships in Munich in 2022.
Great start to the LA 2028 Olympic cycle by Olatunde . As a reminder, the automatic qualification standard for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo is 10.00 secs so he still has a little bit to go to reach that but this is an encouraging result in what has been a difficult 2 years for Israel.
I will of course continue to be active on this forum after the Olympics. Many of you probably experience the same as me today, that feeling of depression that the Olympics are over. This year that feeling is more a little more sombre due to the fact I am reminiscing about my Olympic vacation and also I start a brand new job tomorrow after a 4 week break from my old job so it's like all good things are ending today
Not at the games, just haven't posted much during the games so apologies for that. Just haven't had as much time as I would have needed to do some of the things I had kind of wanted to get done. On the boxing, I just haven't had that many sophisticated thoughts on it beyond erratic judging and a dissapointing Irish display that I haven't fully got my head around. I missed a few sessions that I haven't had the chance to catch up on and the majority of the rest with the exception of the Irish fights it has been my second/third screen and boxing kind of needs your full focus. (plus that boxing thread has descended into some form of madness I do not think I can tame.)
That said I do think my predictions/ rankings ultimately held up a little better than they were trending towards after the first few days but I won't have a full look back on them until after the boxing finishes and those first couple of days were just me wondering how I had spent so much time watching all of these fellas only to get so much so badly wrong.
This does remind me I need to do a wrap up of my rowing form rankings but I was planning to update them daily and just didn't in the end.
But yeah there were other things I wanted to do even smaller pieces of analysis on and just didn't get around to but I will post most of my thoughts once the games are over.
So apologies, but it's nice to know someone misses me when I go somewhat quiet on this forum.
Tuthill looks a prospect. Youngest competitor in the Hammer, threw within about a foot of her PB on her final throw. Finished 16th with 12 going through, would have needed a huge PB to make it so she can be proud of that effort off the back of making the final at the Europeans.
Our performance in boxing is not hard to explain. All boxers except Moorehouse were simply beaten by a better fighter on the day. I’d have expected Gráinne Walsh to have beaten the Hungarian before the fight but she fought poorly. Aoife O’Rourke wasn’t robbed as she fought terribly on the day and in no way looked an medalist. The rest can have no arguments about their losses. Qualifying 10 was a great achievement but most people I know expected at most 2 and maybe on a good day 3 medals. The class is just not there. I’d be telling the three Walsh’s, O’Rourke, Lehane and Clancy that LA is not in their plans.
No distance runners are going to be at their best in a heat
I’m not sure what you’re expecting but none of the 1,500m lads were expected to get out of the heats. Doyle and McCann didn’t even get the qualifying time
Jodie McCann literally had the slowest PB in her heat
The only one who can be disappointed with their day today can be Waddilove and Dickson and Cian O’Connor. Everyone else was at/above expectations
Definitely not diminished - as I said, it's looking like a massive overachievement at this point. As ever there are some concerns about some of the scoring in Paris but for the most part our defeats have been deserved, we've just been outboxed.
Would hope we can get two more into QFs - hopefully O'Rourke + one more, and then hopefully push through for two medals from there.
Thanks for the Ogreman. It shows there is a wafer thin margin in Ireland wing medals and winning none. A couple of bad decisions could make all the difference. Still hoping O’Rourke can win Gold but am worried about Kellie. She’s keeping a very low profile.
Anyway final thoughts on our individual medal chances, Still going to use favourites, contenders and outside chances but I think I will split contenders into two tiers just to add a bit more nuance. Most of my thoughts haven’t really changed (Are on page 16 of the qualification tracker, for my own reference more than anything else).
Athletics
Favourites
Rhasidat Adeleke- So third fastest in the field this year but that’s not including Marileidy Paulino. Nikisha Pryce obviously seems to be in tremendous form but I would be skeptical of her ability to produce a mid-48 run in an Olympic final. Adeleke before last year had never failed to run her best time at a major championships so look it will be close but my take at this point is she wins silver behind Paulino with Kaczmarek in bronze.
Mixed 4*400- I don’t understand the talk of Adeleke skipping this at all, why would you give up a medal chance for possibly an ever so slightly better chance at winning a different medal. I mentioned this before but the time of 3:09.9 we ran at Europeans has never failed to medal at a major championships and O’Donnell, Barr and Adeleke in theory should all be in better form. We start as comfortable favourites for bronze and could push the Dutch for silver. I’m sure the likes of Italy, the Brits and Belgium won’t be too far behind but we are comfortable medal favourites here and have the margin for error needed to potentially rest Adeleke for the heats if need be although I would tempted to race her and tell her to take it easy.
Good Contenders
W4*400- So at Europeans we ran 3:24.8 with no Adeleke which is basically what we need to do to make the Olympic final and 3:22.7 with a very tired Adeleke which probably would leave us just outside the medals but is not far off at all, probably sub 3:22 needed to medal. Now Mawdlsey, Becker and Phil Healy have all had to have been in form from the jump this season so I would be a bit concerned that particularly Mawdsley who could easily race five times before the heats in this event if she makes the semis individually via the rep. There are reasons to be sceptical here but like it absolutely is a medal chance.
Not so good Contenders
Ciara Mageean- form doesn’t seem to be there. She has said in interviews that she isn’t sure why it isn’t there and it was only a couple of months ago that she won Europeans so we shouldn’t be too pessimistic here. I haven’t given up yet but in the past when she has had good major champs she has had very good buildups to those championships as well.
Expectations Athletics- Hopefully Sarah Healy and maybe one other athlete can make a final. Coscoran, O’Sullivan or Lavin probably our best hopes there. While I am predicting we will win 2, any medal is a good result, 5/6 finals appearances would be satisfactory and 10 or so top 15s should probably be in and around the expectation for this team.
Badminton- Realistically just a couple of wins for Nhat.
Boxing
This will all change when the draw happens but.
Favourites
Kellie Harrington- seeding draw went badly with a likely quarter final fight against world silver medallist Angie Valdez and a potential Tokyo Olympic final rematch to come in the semis if she gets there. Kellie has basically never failed to produce when it counts so despite never looking in great shape during this Olympic cycle I do think she is the favourite for gold.
Aoife O’Rourke- Avoid another fight with Cindy Ngamba and this should be quite a safe bronze medal but I don’t see her beating Tammara Thibeault in a semi-final. This is either a disaster, bronze or gold. Those for me are the 3 scenarios here.
Contenders
Grainne Walsh - So 66kg is a weird bracket, there aren’t any easy draws but only Busenaz Surmeneli properly scares me and even she is beatable. Grainne Walsh looked convincing at the second world qualifier and I’m a lot higher than I was originally on her chances but I think when it comes down to it she will come up short against a counterpuncher.
Jude Gallagher- 50% chance of drawing Jahmal Harvey or Abdumalik Khalokov which would make things tough. While this is a tough division, there is the potential for a very straightforward draw regardless of whether he gets one or not he is in with a chance.
Daina Moorehouse- Seeding is all over the place so that means potential for extremely good or bad draws. Moorehouse will give anyone a tough fight but her narrow losses at the first two qualifiers are probably how this is destined to go
Aidan Walsh- I think he is going to medal again. There just isn’t a single boxer in this draw that I wouldn’t go in to a fight against liking Aidan’s chances. This division is full of counterpunchers who aren’t as good at counterpunching as Aidan is. That said there are only 4/5 potential opponents I wouldn’t at least be nervous against and he will make it so nerve-wracking to watch.
Jack Marley- Jack had a good seeding draw and is in this tier as a result but the unseeded boxers are as good as the seeded ones so even in the best case scenario it would still be at least one tough fight but he has a genuine chance.
Not so good contenders-
Michaela Walsh- I’ve come around a bit on Michaela Walsh as when I was doing my rankings I generally didn’t read too much into athletes who qualified early and then had some strange losses to start 2024. There isn’t a potential easy draw here and as such I still don’t think she has a great path to medal here but I think she will get closer than I thought she would a month or two ago.
Outside chances
Dean Clancy, Jennifer Lehane- Clancy is fine, he is a decent boxer just hasn’t yet shown the ceiling to medal here. There is one easier seeding bracket though so there is at least the potential for a lucky draw. Women’s bantamweight is wide open so Lehane has a chance like. She is a tier below the big contenders but you never know.
Boxing expectations- For me 3 medals, Harrington, O’Rourke and 1 other provisionally Aidan Walsh. The main goal for me for the squad is just win more fights more fights we are underdogs in than lose fights in which we are favourites which I will measure using my rankings. Obviously it is boxing so can be incredibly volatile, could be glorious and win 4/5 or we could win 0/1 but the expectation is 3.
Canoe-slalom
Hopefully Liam Jegou or Noel Hendrick can make a final and let see how the kayak cross goes. Don’t really have many expectations here but excited to watch it.
Cycling
Contenders- Lara Gillespie in the omnium, interesting that she is racing the madison as it might have made sense for us to try and have her as fresh as possible for the omnium, look it will be tough but it is nice chance to have in the back pocket for the last day of the games to keep us dreaming all the way through whether we are having a good games or a bad one.
Not so good contenders- Ben Healy was sick in the last week of the Tour so it is very hard to know what kind of legs he will show up with. If he has the legs he had in the first 2 weeks of the tour then I genuinely think he will at worst be in the shake up at the end, although his lack of a sprint could cost him but impossible to know how good his legs will be now.
Cycling expectations- guaranteed a top 10 in the team pursuit, making the top 8 would be a great result, hopefully we at least finish the madison this time and given the TT field isn’t that strong maybe a top 15 for Ryan Mulllen there is on the cards.
Diving- Hopefully make a semifinal, at least get close in one of the 2 events.
Equestrian
Favourites
Team jumping- This is the one that I am confused that we aren’t more excited about. We are top of the league of nations, we won the nations cup in Aachen. I’m not sure what happened with Darragh Kenny’s top horse (Amsterdam 27) and Bertram Allen withdrawing from reserve as well stretches us a bit but we have possibly the best depth in the world. It is very easy for showjumping to go wrong and the Swedes, French, Dutch, Belgians, Americans etc will be strong as well but we are the form team here.
Not so good contenders-
Team eventing- I haven’t a good preview of this. I just want to know what the scores are expected to look like after dressage. Dressage is the key here, if we are in touch at that point, we have every chance but I just don’t know if we will be or not. Excited to find out.
Individual jumping- Cian O’Connor (Maurice), Daniel Coyle (Legacy), Shane Sweetnam (James Kaan Cruz)- It is always tough but having 3 potentially in the mix increases our odds significantly.
Outside chances
Individual eventing- Austin O’Connor? As above with the team event, Be in touch after dressage and we have a chance.
Equestrian expectations- A medal and 4/5 top tens.
Field Hockey- Win a game, just one and it is a good tournament.
Golf
Contenders
Rory McIlroy- Can say the US open disappointment didn’t affect him as much as he wants, that was a devastating loss. It would quite Rory to win here though.
Shane Lowry- Good but frustrating open. Is clearly in form.
Leona Maguire- Not in great form but is good enough.
Outside chances
Stephanie Meadow- could easily be in contention
Golf expectations- Honestly we should expect a medal here but it is golf, 3 in the mix for me is the expectation. Hopefully it yields a medal but.
Gymnastics-
Rhys McClenaghan- Ok this is one I disagree with the skepticism about. Rhys McClenaghan is much more experienced than he was in Tokyo and seems to be over the falls that plagued him in 2021/2022. He has been here before and I know its pommel but most of the time gymnastics events go to form. Will need a near perfect routine to beat Whitlock but this is a safe medal.
Gymnastics expectations- Silver medal
Rowing
Currently in the middle of rankings all of the boats for this regatta so my thoughts are somewhat incomplete.
Favourites
LM2x- Don’t be fooled by the world cup ii result. They are comfortable favourites.
M2x- Dutch are comfortable favourites, Romania, Italy and us in some order behind although plenty of other potential protagonists with New Zealand, France, Germany etc. I think we win bronze here.
Contenders
W2- - Still think they are doomed to a fourth place finish behind the Netherlands, Australia and Romania.
W2x- Haven’t had a great season and probably come in ranked 5th/6th behind Romania, the USA, Australia and Norway with Lithuania being a significant wildcard. I do think there is a lot of reasons for optimism here though and I can see the general public being completely unaware of them and RTE barely acknowledge their existence only for them to pop up and medal.
M2- - The toughest one to know as we have no idea where their form is. They are world bronze medallists and if they replicate that final performance from last year they will medal again but obviously a very disrupted season. Rowing though, you don’t necessarily need that good a season, it just needs to come together at the right time.
Not so good contenders
LW2x – They rank somewhere from 5th to 8th with the Canadians, French and Greeks on form. I don’t know I feel optimistic about this boat and can see them beating New Zealand, the USA or Romania for a medal and I think they will at least make the Final. This may just be me being optimistic and I’m not sure the evidence really points to them having a medal chance.
Rowing expectations- I maintain that this season has looked very similar to the last 2 years where we ultimately won 3 global medals in Olympic events but I accept that we only have 2 favourites and one of those is quite tentative so 2 medals is probably the expected outcome. Anything less 6 finals is a disappointment though.
Rugby Sevens
Contenders-
I’m so nervous for this now, We have a really good chance. Crucial first game against South Africa but then its either beat New Zealand for a quarter final likely against South Africa or the USA or a lose to New Zealand and face a quarter final probably against France or possibly Fiji. We are absolutely good enough but I’m not brave enough to pick a medal here.
Not so good contenders-
Women’s sevens- Will need to either upset Australia in the pools or France/ New Zealand/ Australia in the quarter-finals to make the semis. If we can do that we could sneak a bronze, but it will be tough.
Sevens Expectations- Men- Make the semis, Women- be competitive in a quarter final.
Sailing
Not so good contenders-
Finn Lynch (ILCA7)- Needs a lot to go right but has produced this calibre fo performance before
Outisde Chances-
Eve McMahon- Is this the tournament where she comes of age in the senior ranks, If not then not a medal chance. If so then could become a real chance in a hurry.
Men’s 49er- Have stagnated a bit, but will likely win a race or two, consistency is the question mark.
Sailing expectations- Is two medal races and optimistic projection? Maybe, maybe not.
Swimming
Favourites
Daniel Wiffen- Two really good chances, especially with no Hafnouai and Sam Short potentially not being in great form. It is possible he wins one medal but I think it is likely he either wins 2 or 0. I trust him, so let’s say silver in the 1500, bronze in the 800.
Contenders
Mona McSharry- Apparently her entire focus has been on these Olympics which explains a slightly disappointing world championships. Needs the swim of her life to medal but I would also expect her to have the swim of her life.
Swimming expectations- I’m willing to say 2 medals. Outside of the three potential medal events hopefully 3/4 other semi finals/ top 16s and maybe one additional final/top 8 (open water).
Taekwondo
Not so good contenders-
Jack Woolley- hopefully can beat Magomedov in the last 16, then have a go at Vito dell’Aquila but safe in the knowledge that there is decent chance of a rep even if he loses.
Taekwondo expectation- Win a round. See where that leaves us medal chances wise.
Predicted medals (2 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze)
Gold- Kellie Harrington (W60kg boxing)
Gold- Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls
Silver- Rhys McClenaghan (Pommel horse)
Silver- Team Showjumping
Silver- Daniel Wiffen (1500m freestyle)
Silver- Rhasidat Adeleke (400m)
Bronze- Aoife O’Rourke (W75kg boxing)
Bronze- Daniel Wiffen (800m freestyle)
Bronze- Men’s Double Sculls
Bronze- Aidan Walsh (M71kg boxing) (realistically subject to change after the draw)
Bronze- Mixed 4*400m relay.
I know, I know I am setting myself up for disappointment and we are Irish so everything will go wrong but these are what I honestly think will happen in each sport and hopefully my contenders thing is at least somewhat convincing. I ended up with 37 contenders which at a medal rate of 36% would be 13.5 medals. I don’t think we will do that well but I think it shows that predicting 11 is far from outlandish.
I think the women’s pair win a medal and I don’t think we win a relay medal. I’m nervous for Kelly but draw dependent I could see Aoife win gold (as weird as that sounds - I think a good start and she’ll fly)
Big win over Japan, first Top 8 finish of the games in the bag already.
I know the reasons why it's happened this time, but having two of the three men's sevens days taking place before the opening ceremony feels a bit harsh on the players, with 8 of the 12 sides going to be out of medal contention by tomorrow night.
Hopefully in future there is no more than one day of sevens before the official start of the games. I don't mind having early rounds of events taking place at this stage, but effectively knocking out almost 100 of the games competitors before the games themselves officially start doesn't sit right with me.
Ireland's NOC has booked 45 Rooms outside the village for athlethes that are finished in competition but want to experience the Olympic Experience. The main reason they want athlethes out as soon as the finish is not to disturb those yet to compete. Seemingly the behaviour in the vilage got more raucous as competions finished.
Athletics program at Stade de France must start on Day 7 morning, I assume was the reason Rugby 7 thus must leave the venue at last at Day 5 to prepare all the stuff for Track & Field
Great work Ogreman, 133 was spot on more than two months out, and the individual sport predictions weren't far off either. The out of the blue one was the fourth canoe slalom qualifier, but it brought the total number nicely into line with the prediction.
Looking forward to your next spreadsheet telling us how many medals we're going to win!
Oldira reacted to OlympicIRL in Team Ireland - Road to LA 2028 Olympic Games
Oldira got a reaction from dodge in Team Ireland Daily Diary at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Oldira got a reaction from Ogreman in Boxing at the Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024
Oldira got a reaction from Makedonas in Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 Medal Predictions
Oldira got a reaction from intoronto in Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 Medal Predictions
Oldira got a reaction from Roamingrover86 in Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 News
Oldira got a reaction from OlympicIRL in Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 Medal Predictions
Oldira got a reaction from Josh in Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 Medal Predictions