Paul O’Donovan with Daire Lynch during the double sculls semi-final at the 2005 World Rowing Cup in Lucerne
Ireland’s team for next month’s World Rowing Championships will be without the most successful Irish Olympian, Paul O’Donovan.
The 31-year-old Skibbereen man, who has won two gold and one silver medal at the Olympic Games, is a doctor and has been working in the Mater Hospital in Dublin. He did not make himself available for selection. He had competed for Ireland this season, rowing in a heavyweight double that finished fifth at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne.
His partner in that double, Olympic medallist Daire Lynch, is also not in the team that will compete in Shanghai from September 21-28. Lynch is a medical student at UCD.
Fintan McCarthy, who won gold with O’Donovan in the lightweight double at Paris 2024 and Tokyo 2020, partners Philip Doyle in a new-look pair for Shanghai.
McCarthy has successfully stepped up to heavyweight ranks this season, partnering Konan Pazzaia to bronze at the European Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the World Cup Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland. Doyle partnered with Lynch in the Ireland double in Paris and claimed bronze in the double sculls.
Pazzaia moves into the single. The Queen’s University student, who was brought up in Switzerland, campaigned well in the single in 2024 and came close to qualifying for Paris.
In an 11-crew team – which is yet to be announced by Rowing Ireland – Fiona Murtagh stands out as a strong prospect of a medal. The 30-year-old Galway woman took bronze for Ireland at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in a four, but her transformation into a single sculler this year has been remarkably successful.
She took silver at the World Cup in Lucerne and the European Championships. She has every prospect of a podium finish in Shanghai.
The team travels on Friday to Spain for a pre-World Championships training camp. The plan is to train in Galicia, a new venue for the Ireland squad.