Sport

Paul O’Donovan wins gold at World Rowing Cup III in Switzerland

Rower worked his way through the pack from fourth at 500m to take gold at the line

Paul O’Donovan won a gold medal. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Paul O’Donovan won a gold medal. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Sun Jul 10 2022 - 14:41

Paul O’Donovan has won gold at the World Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland, and set a new World Cup record.

O’Donovan, the only representative from Ireland at the regatta, worked his way through the pack from fourth at 500m to take gold at the line. Belgium’s Tibo Vyvey took silver and Uruguay’s Bruno Cetraro Berriolo took bronze. O’Donovan was announced as having achieved a World Rowing Cup Best Time.

“A very, very, very tough race. The hardest of races. I’ll have to go home with my coach and think about it deeply and analyse where we can get better going forwards and work on that in training and all that nonsense,” O’Donovan said.

“But it was really good fun! Lucerne is great. The hardest of regatta courses, you don’t know what it’s going to throw at you and I was fortunate I could handle everything and do some strong pushes at the end.”

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Rowing Ireland’s CEO, Michelle Carpenter, said: “Congratulations to Paul on his gold medal today, and for breaking a World Cup record. We were delighted to see the result, as thousands of young rowers competed in the sport for the first time today in the 1k Classic, at the National Rowing Centre, where our high performance athletes are based.

“It’s phenomenal to see the stars of the future, competing and enjoying our sport today.”

Rowing Ireland’s High-Performance Director, Antonio Maurogiovanni, said: “We are delighted with Paul’s performance, and to see him coming away from World Cup III with the gold medal. After good racing here, and in Poznan, we look forward to Europeans and the World Championships in the coming months.

“Huge time and effort is put into these events, so thank you to all athletes, coaches and support staff for contributing to our continued success.”