Skibbereen Rowing Club's Finn O'Reilly was part of the Ireland junior men's quad that finished just outside the medals at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Corgeno.
SKIBBEREEN Rowing Club’s Finn O’Reilly was part of the Ireland junior men’s quad that finished just outside the medals at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Corgeno, northern Italy.
The junior men’s quad of Andrew Sheehan (Lee Rowing Club), Finn O’Reilly (Skibbereen Rowing Club), Tom Kelly (Kenmare Rowing Club) and Rory O’Neill (Castleconnel Rowing Club) made up the crew that competed in Italy last weekend. A squad of 16 athletes represented Ireland at the regatta in Italy.
These four young men in the quad were the top four single scullers at the national championships in July with Tom Kelly from Kenmare taking top honours.
The Coupe de la Jeunesse is a two-day regatta for athletes under 18. It is often the first taste of international competition that they get.
The quad came through the heats on Saturday morning to qualify for the A final. Conditions were very hot on the course and it was neck and neck coming down the 2,000m track in the final with Italy, Spain, Great Britain and Ireland all in the mix for the gold medal.
Ireland fought hard in the final 300 metres but came up short by 0.8 of a second to miss out on a bronze medal.
On Sunday the quad made it through to the A final again and the pace of the race was very quick off the starting blocks. They fought gallantly and had to be satisfied with coming in fourth position again. These are great results for this young crew as three of them are U18 again next year. The future is certainly bright for these four Munster boys.
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