With the competition looming from the 25th to the 28th of April 2024, here’s Ireland’s ones to watch at the European Rowing Championships, taking place in Szeged, Hungary.
There are plenty of events on offer at the meet, with Irish women competing in two events.
More specifically, Margaret Cremen will hope to impress in the Lightweight Women's Single Sculls (or the LW1x), with Zoe Hyde and Alison Bergin racing in the Women’s Double Sculls boat (or the LW2x category).
Hyde and Bergin’s first appearance in Szeged is scheduled for 9:25 am on Thursday April 25th, with Cremen set to grace the water at 11:35/40 am on the same day.
Both will look to advance past those first phases, with the final for both events timetabled for Sunday, but what are their chances for a podium position come the conclusion of the weekend?
100 DAYS TO GO 🇫🇷
The countdown is on! Just 100 days until things kick off in Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games
With 6 boats qualified, the rowers still have the Final Qualification Regatta in Lucerne next month for one last chance to book their tickets to France!#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/MMtPLMPBdv— Rowing Ireland (@RowingIreland) April 17, 2024
Ireland’s ones to watch at the European Rowing Championships - Margaret Cremen - Lightweight Women's Single Sculls
Rowing fans will have been familiar with Margaret Cremen from the last Olympic cycle, with herself and Aoife Casey competing in Tokyo, finishing 8th overall in the Lightweight Women’s Double boat with a time of 6:49.9.
Interestingly, that duo also qualified the Irish lightweight women's double for the 2024 Games in Paris, clocking 7:03 in the B final at the World Rowing Championships back in September to secure the golden ticket.
Importantly though, as the rules of rowing regulate, that only means the boat had qualified on that occasion, with the athletes to fill those seats yet to be finalised.
For the Europeans at least, the University College Cork RC woman is going solo, and will no doubt aspire to leave her mark on the competition, especially seeing as she didn’t compete at the 2024 World Cup.
Ireland’s ones to watch at the European Rowing Championships - Zoe Hyde and Alison Bergin - Women’s Double Sculls
Contrastingly to Cremen, Zoe Hyde (Tralee RC) and Alison Bergin (Fermoy RC) have in fact taken to the water in this grade before, winning their heat at the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade back in September and clinching fourth in the A final.
There, the new combination at the time crossed in a time of 6:52.21, only losing out to Romania in first with 6:46.94, followed by Lithuania and USA in second and third.
Before that, Hyde had teamed up with renowned Irish rower Sanita Puspure at the 2022 World Rowing Championships, while Bergin had excelled at U23 level.
In Hungary, the duo will once again be put to the test.
