Gold-plated Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy to begin their quest for Olympic double
The remaining five Irish rowing crews get into the action today at Paris 2024
History chasing Paul O'Donovan starts his gold medal bid with Fintan McCarthy in this morning's rowing heats.
O'Donovan and McCarthy struck gold in Tokyo three years ago after O'Donovan and his brother Gary won silver in Rio in 2016. This is the last time that the lightweight sculls will be a part of the Olympics and the Cork duo are intent on finishing this glorious chapter by topping the podium again.
O'Donovan insists that they have to learned to deal with the pressures of an Olympics. "I don’t think it’s hugely different to normal regattas," he said.
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"When you’re actually in the race, I don’t think you pay much attention to the crowd anyway. Sometimes at the World Championships, they have some stands that are reasonably full and we raced at Henley Royal Regatta in the double one year and the whole way down along the bank, there’s crowds of people shouting at you there."
There will be five Irish boats hoping to progress this morning, with the women's pair of Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh another stand-out along with the women's four.
Keogh and Murtagh were part of the four's bronze medal winning success in Tokyo. The mood will be optimistic for all involved after the first two boats competing, the men's and women's double sculls, yesterday qualified for their respective semi-final on Tuesday.
Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch stormed to victory, beating their Spanish, French and German rivals. As with the men, three from four crews qualified from the women's heats and Olympic debutants Zoe Hyde and Alison Bergin were comfortable in finishing third in theirs.
Lynch is also a rookie at this level, although he did travel to Tokyo as first reserve last time around when Doyle competed. "Philip's a huge help, yeah," said Lynch. "He’s telling me how to sleep and all that, as a doctor!".
But Lynch smiled: "It’s the opposite. Daire is the best sleeper here, I’m terrible. He goes to bed and I’m like, 'He’s away, I better go too'. I sleep the best ever when I’m sharing with him because he forces me to bed at a certain time.
"It’s good. He’s his own man, he has his own confidence. He was with us for the prep all the way through Tokyo, and he flew to Japan with us as the spare, so he has that experience of the prep, and now he’s putting it on the water. Four out of five races were podiums in the last two years, so I think he’ s proved himself."
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