Siobhán McCrohan, defending her title in the Lightweight Single Sculls category at the World Rowing Championships, made a striking commencement on the Royal Canadian Henley course in St Catharines, Canada after two prior deferrals due to bad weather. Despite the entire session being rescheduled on Monday and a delay on Tuesday, McCrohan managed to conquer the third among four heats comfortably, securing a place in the Friday semi-finals.
McCrohan, the 37-year-old Galway native, came back to top-level rowing after a nearly 10-year hiatus and seized the world title again last September in Belgrade. She displayed an impressive performance, wrapping up the race in precisely 8:23.03, a whole five seconds ahead of early frontrunner Kenia Lechuga Alanis from Mexico. With the quickest completion among all four heats, she has certainly marked her territory ahead of the crunch race for the final spots on the lane.
In the other heats, Zoi Fitsiou from Greece prevailed in the second heat with a time of 8:26.33, while Ionela Cozmiuc of Romania clinched the fourth heat in 8:26.88. Notably, Cozmiuc previously competed against Fitsiou for the lightweight women’s double sculls finals in Paris where they took home silver and bronze medals respectively.
This championship, occurring straight after the recent Paris Olympic and just before the Paralympic Games, caters to non-Olympic and non-Paralympic boat classes. As many as six categories are being contested and this event is being held alongside the World Under-23 and Under-19 Championships.
Additionally, Paul O’Donovan was another convincing champion of his initial heat in the lightweight men’s single sculls, also advancing to Friday’s semi-finals ranking as the second-fastest. Fresh off his victory in the lightweight doubles at the Paris Olympics with Fintan McCarthy, adding a second Olympic gold to his collection, O’Donovan is no newcomer to this boat class. He achieved gold in this category at the last combined World Rowing Championships in 2016, followed by a successful title defence in 2017, before shifting to double sculls, which has been his preferred class since.