Junior warm up at Couple de la Jeunesse in Ireland

The event was organised to allow crews the maximum chance for racing. Heats and finals were raced on both Saturday and Sunday. Great Britain won the overall points table, finishing with 328 points. Their success came in the big boats winning the men’s eight on both Saturday and Sunday and the men’s quadruple sculls on Sunday. They also took home gold in the women’s eight and the women’s four.

Italy came second on the medals table, challenging Great Britain in the men’s four, coxed four and coxed quadruple sculls. However, their performance on the women’s side was not as successful. France won the most points in the women’s categories by winning the women’s double on both Saturday and Sunday and winning the women’s four and women’s quad on Sunday.

The event was packed into the Irish rowing calendar. “It was a great success and it was the third weekend of our Festival of Rowing,” said Carpenter. “The festival was launched with our Irish Championships, followed by the Home countries and ultimately, the Coupe de la Jeunesse. We are a small team in Rowing Ireland with a huge group of dedicated volunteers who all rallied together to run this with the other three events.”

The Coupe de la Jeunesse was founded in 1985 and now has 13 participating nations and offers 13 events. It is an important step for many young rowers and often marks their first international competition.

“This weekend was the 25th anniversary of the first Irish junior team taking part in the Coupe de La Jeunesse. World Champions and finalists such as Heather Boyle, Sam Lynch, Gearoid Towey, Claire Lambe, Gary O’Donovan and Paul O’Donovan have all come through the Coupe system. It is key to our development as a rowing country. We were honoured to hold it this weekend at our amazing facilities at the National Rowing Centre in Cork,” said Carpenter.

For full results, click here: http://coupe2018.ie/results/

The 2019 Coupe de la Jeunesse will head to Corgeno, Italy from 2-4 August.