Image Credit: World Rowing
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games saw mixed results for the Irish women’s team. In the last cycle of lightweight rowing, the women’s double followed in the footsteps of their Rio 2016 predecessors and made the Olympic final, finishing a creditable fifth place, just off the bronze medal. In the openweight camp, the pair and the four missed the medal finals, and the debut openweight double finished mid-pack in the B-final. As the LA 2028 cycle begins, some Olympic stars will be using this weekend to test out speed whilst Ireland’s young talent will look to step up to senior level towards 2028.
Margaret Cremen (University College Cork)
Cremen was a part of the lightweight double for Tokyo and Paris alongside long-time partner Aoife Casey. Following the cancellation of lightweight rowing, Cremen looks to move into the openweight class and hopes to bring the speed and aggressive racing style she had during her lightweight career. She is no stranger to beating openweights, having won both renewals of the senior singles at the Irish Championships in 2021 and 2022. She is certainly worth watching this weekend against her openweight Irish teammates.
Alison Bergin (Fermoy RC)
The young talent of Bergin saw success at U23 level, winning both bronze and silver medals in the single at the U23 World Rowing Championships in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Stepping into the senior ranks with partner Zoe Hyde (Tralee RC) in the double sculls, they have seen continued development, making A-finals in all their international races and just falling short of the Olympic final in Paris. Bergin will be looking to pick up where she left off last year and stamp her mark in the Irish sculling team.
Emily Hegarty (Skibbereen RC)
Both Hegarty and Aoife Casey have been enjoying early success with the University of London this season and are flying in to show their intentions of carrying on their careers for this Olympic cycle. Hegarty is better associated with sweep rowing, having stroked the women’s four to a bronze medal in Tokyo before narrowly missing out on contending medals in Paris. In sculling, she enjoyed significant success as a junior, winning the Irish Championships and going on to medal at the Coupe de la Jeunesse and race at the U19 World Rowing Championships in the double sculls with Casey. Having missed the entire 2023 season through a back injury, it was not the Olympic cycle she would have wanted and hopefully LA will be more promising for this talented oarswoman.
Notable Mentions
Olympians Natalie Long and Imogen Magner of Lee Valley RC, make their return for the start of a new cycle. Both women competed as a pair in the 2023 European Rowing Championships, winning the B-final and were a part of the four with Hegarty who missed out on the A-final at Paris.
Lightweight reserve sculler Síobhan McCrohan (Tribesman RC), who returned to international rowing in 2023 after a lengthy absence, is another entry with an impressive CV of sculling success; she was crowned world champion in the lightweight single in 2023.
Rising talent looking to test themselves against the seniors include Grace Healy (Trinity College Dublin), who raced the openweight double at the U23 World Rowing Championships in St Catharine’s last summer, and Aine O’Mahony (Fermoy RC), who also competed at the U23 World Rowing Championships but in the lightweight double. Neptune RC’s Niamh Kilgallon has also shown talent on the Irish domestic circuit and raced Henley Women’s Regatta, making it to the semifinals.
Prediction
Just like the men’s equivalent, we have another fantastic field of scullers looking to be top of the rankings this weekend. Cremen has shown herself to be a formidable sculler as a lightweight and could finish top here but no doubt Bergin, Hyde, Long and Magner will look to push Cremen all the way. Both Hegarty and Casey will also be aiming for top rankings but will depend on how much sculling prep they have had in the lead up to the weekend having travelled over from London.
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