Irish Win Sparks More Gold

Irish Win Sparks more Gold
28-August-2001 13:13 (GMT)
Sinead Jennings is the first Irish woman to become a world rowing champion after taking gold at the weekend in the lightweight women's single sculls.

And her win proved to be inspiration for her countryman Sam Lynch who took the lightweight men's single just under 15 minutes later.

"At the start of my race, just before I heard go, I heard the result of the women's lightweight single was Sinead first," Lynch said.

"And I just said, okay, its down to me now to make it through."

Lynch appeared to have little trouble in the race, leading early and winning by more than a length. He confirmed that he was feeling great.

"I just didn't think about anybody else. I just rowed and rowed and rowed," he said.

"There was no pressure. I just enjoyed every stroke of it and I knew after the 750 that it was done."

Jennings' race was not so cut and dried. She had to come from behind to win over the Netherlands' Miriam Ter Beek and former world champion Pia Vogel of Switzerland.

Beating Vogel was a strange experience for Jennings who said she was not sure how to feel.

"She was my hero for years so to beat the double world champion….I don't know if it's right to do it or not! I almost feel guilty!" she said.

Jennings said she felt like she was up with the best now and that it was "absolutely fabulous" to win Ireland's first women's world championship gold.

"I've never been happier. This is amazing!" she said. "Hopefully now we will have others following in the footsteps."

Ireland took another lightweight gold at Lucerne on Sunday when Tony O'Connor and Gearoid Towey took the lightweight men's coxless pair.

Full reports on all the weekends racing is available in news, with detailed results in Past Results and a results overview in Daily Summaries.