Olympic dreams are well and truly alive for Skibbereen rowers Emily Hegarty and Aoife Casey

TWO Skibbereen rowers will hope to qualify for this summer’s Olympic Games when they race in Sunday’s decisive final Olympic qualification regatta in Lucerne.

Due to poor weather conditions that are forecasted for Monday, World Rowing made the decision to move the finals to Sunday morning – so it’s going to be a busy and exciting morning for Irish rowing.

On Saturday, Emily Hegarty and the Irish women’s four that also includes Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh won their heat with the quickest qualifying time across the two heats. The Irish crew beat crews from Russia, Ukraine, and Germany. They finished with a time of 06:29.22 and progressed straight to the A final on Sunday – at 9.30am – where the top two crews will qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

Also, Skibbereen rower Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen won their heat in the lightweight women’s double. They beat crews from Australia, Spain, Brazil and Hungary. Aoife and Margaret finished with a time of 07:09:29 and progressed to the A/B semi-final on Sunday morning – at 8.40am – where the top three crews will enter the final later in the morning. There are three qualifying spots available in the lightweight women’s double final for the Tokyo Olympics.

Daire Lynch, in the men’s single scull, booked his place in the A/B semi-final for Sunday morning after winning his repechage on Saturday.