Funferal

RTE analysis

RTÉ Sports have a detailed report on the results from the World Championships, including some coverage of Heather and Sinead’s race:

As with the four, this twosome is more suited to a headwind as their strength, and not their speed, is their greatest asset. This experienced couple are the first Irish women to ever reach an Olympic class World final, which was the target for this year. The breakthrough is all the more notable considering they only came together as this combination at the beginning of August as Jennings was suffering from a stress fracture injury.
Reflecting on the race Boyle remarked: “As with the light four, we’re more suited to a headwind, and that coupled with not getting a good start left us with everything to do today. We tried to make a move at 500m, but the others had just done so well off the start we just couldn’t reel in the deficit.”

The article concludes with an analysis of the overall squad’s performance:

Gifu 2005 has been a hugely successful regatta for the Irish, in their first season under the stewardship of former double Olympic champion Harald Jarhling, with the three Olympic boats lying within the Olympic qualifying standard, and the remaining two within the top twelve in the world.