On the opening morning of the Olympic regatta Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle were impressive winners of their heat in the double scull, cutting through the field in the middle of the race and posting the fastest time of the day in their event.
Zoe Hyde and Alison Bergin, in the women’s double scull, were the only other Irish crew in the water on Saturday, and on their Olympic debut they finished third in their heat to secure a semi-final spot on Tuesday.
It was a statement performance from Lynch and Doyle. In a stacked heat, they finished ahead of the European silver medallists Spain and the reigning Olympic champions France. Germany finished fourth.
The Irish crew sat off a blistering early pace, but improved into a close second by the halfway stage and soon took command. With 800 metres to go they were in front and in control.
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It was a composed performance by the Irish crew. Spain flew from the start and established a clear early lead, but Lynch and Doyle resisted any temptation to follow them.
“We kinda reined it in a bit because we knew we were going quicker than we normally would in training and we’ve been going well in training over the full distance,” said Lynch “We reined it in a bit and as we started moving through the second 500 we knew we’d get through them.
“Obviously you don’t want them to get too far ahead and sometimes we have been in races where we have been scrambling to the line in the last 300 metres, so you don’t really want to be in that position. But we were confident enough we’d get through them today because we were feeling good and we knew if they did that start, they weren’t going to keep going.”
The gold-medal favourites, Netherlands, also won their heat, but the performance of the Irish crew will ensure a favourable lane draw in the semi-final on Tuesday.
Hyde and Bergin couldn’t live with the early pace in their heat and were last of the four crews for most of the opening 1,000 metres. But by halfway they had started to gain on the Lithuanian boat and passed them in a strong third quarter.
Of the 13 crews that lined up in the three heats, Hyde and Bergin had the sixth fastest time overall, and were significantly quicker than the other two third-place finishers.
“We’ve brushed off the cobwebs now and we’re looking forward to the next one,” said Hyde. “Obviously for our first Olympic Games we were a bit nervous. But I think it was a good race and we learned a lot, which I think is really important. We know now what we need to work on to step up for the semi-final.
“We obviously have a good second half [to the race]. If we can replicate that in the first half and then we’ll be laughing.”
