Irish rowers finish fourth in heats at Paris Paralympics

AN IRISH Paralympic rower whose mother is a Mayo native missed out on a direct place in the Paris Paralympic final of the PR2 Mixed Double Sculls after finishing forth in his heat.

Tiarnán O'Donnell and his partner Katie O'Brien from Galway finished fourth in the PR2 mixed doubles sculls heat this morning in a time of 9:03.33 which means they will go into the repechage.

Tiarnán, whose mother Neasa is a native of Achill Island, took to the water at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Paris at 11.15am this morning. It was the first time for rowers to compete for Ireland at the Paralympics since the London Games in 2012.

The pair found the going tough and finished fourth behind Ukraine, Israel and China with Israel and China going straight into the final which will take place on Sunday, September 1.

Tiarnán and Katie still have an opportunity of making Sunday's final and will compete in the repechage which is scheduled to take place tomorrow morning at 9.50pm.

Tiarnán (26) from Boher, Co Limerick is a relative newcomer to rowing having initially made a name for himself as one of Ireland’s top wheelchair basketball players.

In May 2023, he transitioned to rowing through the PTSB NextGen programme and moved to Cork to base himself closer to the National Rowing Centre. A graduate of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Limerick, he made rapid progress and natural talent earned him a place alongside Katie to compete in Paris in the PR2 Mixed Double Sculls.

At the age of five, Tiarnán was diagnosed with a rare malformation in his right leg and underwent operations every few months throughout the rest of my childhood. Following medical advice, he made the difficult decision to amputate his right leg after completing his Leaving Cert.

His mother Neasa who is the Senior Executive Sports Manager at University of Limerick is a native of Achill Sound and Tiarnán is the grandson of Kathleen and the late Brendan Fahy who were both teachers at Tonragee National School.