Galway’s newest world rowing medallist is self-funded, and crowd-funded, because she’s not supported by Ireland’s sporting bodies.

Tribesmen Rowing Club set-up a crowd funding page on gofundme.com to financially help Claregalway’s Siobhán McCrohan, who won a gold medal at the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade last week.

The 36-years-old, who returned to the sport last October after a seven-year break, won the women’s lightweight single sculls on Friday.

McCrohan won her semi-final to qualify for the final in the advantageous lane one; a burst of power in the last 500 metres of the final helped her overtake long-time leader Kenia Lechuga to win gold by a boat length.

The world champion finished with a time of 8:47.96, ahead of the silver placed Mexican (8:51.57) and American Sophia Lewis who took bronze (8.52.48).

McCrohan’s experience of rowing in rough and windy conditions in the west of Ireland stood to her in Serbia as she capped a fairytale comeback this season with a career best performance.

“It was worth coming back,” McCrohan told RTÉ Sport immediately after the race, in reference to her stepping away from competitive elite rowing in 2016.

McCrohan said she returned to proper training last winter and linked-up with the Ireland squad in May to train alongside double sculls partner Leah Oakley. Since then, she had improved by 15 seconds, she said.

She said she always believed she had the potential to be world number one.

“I’ve always felt if you’re going to put yourself forward for trials that you should believe that you can get to the point where you’d be one of the best in the World because you are putting yourself forward looking to represent Ireland,” McCrohan said.

In an interview on Galway Bay fm McCrohan hinted at a fractured relationship with rowing hierarchy in this country when she insisted it “wasn’t quite so much my decision to step away from rowing back in the day” in 2016.

Pictured: Galway rower Siobhán McCrohan on her way to gold in the Lightweight Single Sculls at the World Championships in Belgrade on Friday.