Moynihan shows class on World Cup return
Irish Olympian Cathal Moynihan signalled his return to international competition with a strong performance at yesterday's opening round of the World Cup regatta in Slovenia.
Racing a strong field in the lightweight single, the Muckross sculler finished second behind the Frenchman Maxime Goisset, a bronze medallist from last year's European Championships.
Moynihan is now the only member of the Beijing lightweight four to commit to a further term in rowing, although rumours suggest that his Olympic crew-mate Paul Griffin may also make a return having finished his law exams.
It wasn't just the senior athletes who were making their mark on the picturesque Lake Bled in the heart of the Slovenian mountains.
Ireland's international performance director Martin McElroy has brought out five lightweight crews to gain experience in advance of this year's U-23 championships in Belarus.
A commanding performance by Claire Lambe and Siobhan McCrohan in the women's double sculls belied their relative lack of competition at senior level.
The Irish double led the 2000m heat from start to finish to qualify direct for today's semi-final.
Dublin-based Lambe (19), an engineering student from UCD, and her sculling partner McCrohan, a qualified aeronautical engineer from Galway, were always tipped to prove strongest among Ireland's young hopefuls.
"They've consistently shone at being good athletes," said McElroy.
McElroy cautioned against unguarded optimism as he attempts to rebuild Ireland's international rowing reputation after the disappointment of the Beijing Olympics.
Earlier in the year he was successful in gaining the largest percentage increase in funding of any international sport.
It's a fact he puts down to objective analysis of the issues, and the long, slow process of building expertise, not in the current Olympic cycle, or even the next, but looking ahead to 2020 and beyond.
- Robert Treharne Jones
Irish Independent
