The 25-year-old PR2 single sculler from Lee Rowing Club, who has a prosthetic right leg, is a pugnacious competitor.
He took silver in his first international regatta in Lucerne last month, never relenting as he chased the leader. He did it again in Poznan, this time taking on world champion Corne de Koning. O’Donnell had an indifferent start, but he kept the classy Dutchman honest, and finished a clear second. Ireland’s other competitor, Steven McGowan, was a close-up fourth.
The PR2 class is for rowers with weakness or absence of leg function.
The programme for the day was brought forward because of adverse weather conditions and the semi-finals early in the day had seen Ireland qualify one more boat, the men’s double, to join the women’s pair in Sunday’s A Finals.
Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch had to give way to New Zealand’s Robbie Manson and Jordan Parry in a thrilling finish. The Kiwis grabbed hold of the race in the middle stages. Doyle and Lynch gained on them and drew up beside them as the line approached. The New Zealanders had one last push to win it. Manson loves this venue; he set the world’s best time in the single sculls in Poznan seven years ago.
“Those conditions are so difficult, and we made a few mistakes in the first 500 and had to work hard through the rest of the course and New Zealand just pipped us in the end,” Doyle said.
“Hopefully tomorrow [in the A Final] if we don’t make those same mistakes we might leave ourselves in a better position at the end. I had an injury six or seven weeks ago, fractured my rib, so just trying to get some race experience back before Paris to see if the body can take the full brunt so in a headwind like that you really test everything in the upper body. Feeling OK.”
The double are set to compete in their A Final at 8.46 Irish time on Sunday. The women’s pair of Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh are in action at 8.06.
The young men’s pair, John Kearney and Jack Dorney, finished second in their B Final, eighth overall, on Saturday. They had been third in their repechage,
Single sculler Konan Pazzaia was fifth in his semi-final and will compete in Sunday’s B Final (7.20 Irish time).