Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy wrote themselves into the history books with a commanding defence of the Olympic lightweight double sculls gold medal they won at Tokyo 2020. The Skibbereen pair took control of the race in the third quarter, pulling ahead of the Greek boat and spreading the field as they surged towards their second successive Olympic title.
They will leave the Olympic Games with the legacy of being the last lightweight boat to win a gold medal, as the Games move on and discard the lightweight weight category for Los Angeles.
“No one believed we could do it coming into the competition. Against all the odds we stuck with it, trained hard. Italy were number one seeds. Underdogs like ourselves put in a big dig. We’re very happy to have proved the doubters wrong. It’s a good day for the Irish,” said O’Donovan after the race.
O’Donovan and McCarthy become the first Irish athletes since Dr Pat Callaghan in 1932 to successfully defend an Olympic title and did so with magisterial power and dominance.
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The two have been an unbeatable pair in world rowing for the past three years and over the 2,000m course in Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium they showed just why.
The race unfolded as optimistic Irish fans had hoped, with the two rowers doing what they have always done since they asserted world dominance.
They set their own pace early, comfortably tucking in third as the race got started. Then they slowly pressed the accelerator, squeezing out the rest of the field as they approached the finish line.
The Irish boat remained third at 500m behind the leading Italians, with Greece in second place. But incrementally O’Donovan and McCarthy made ground and, between 500m and 1000m, surged into second place, just 0.9 seconds behind the leaders.
By 1,500m the Irish boat was in first place, almost one second ahead of the rest of the field. There was little chance of them being caught, as one of their strengths is that they do not slow down.
Ireland crossed the line comfortably in front, McCarthy the younger of the pair raising his arms in triumph and O’Donovan resting back in the boat, both of them double Olympic champions.
Aoife Casey and Mags Cremen finished 5th in the final of lightweight women’s double sculls, in their first Olympic final. The Cork pair, who finished second in the B final in Tokyo, had to work hard to maintain that position. Great Britain won the gold medal.
Casey and Cremen made a fast start but as the race took shape the Irish crew settled into fifth place at 500m and didn’t improve their position at half way or at the 1500m mark. The United States came at them in the closing stages but Cremen and Casey held them off.
Reaching the A final would have been their primary target coming into these Olympics, and having had to negotiate a repechage earlier in the week, finishing fifth was a significant achievement.
Earlier, Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney finished sixth in the final of the Men’s Pair. In an incredibly high-calibre race, which included the reigning Olympic, World and European champions, the Fermanagh duo struggled to keep pace and were dropped in the final quarter of the race.
Croatia came through to win gold, and retain their Olympic title, in a titanic battle with Great Britain that was only decided in the closing 20m.
For Corrigan and Timoney at their first Olympic Games, reaching the final was an honourable feat but it was clear from early on that their stroke rate high was unsustainably high as they tried to keep up with the other boats.
They hit the 500m mark in third place, but had dropped to fifth by halfway and were still in that spot with 500m to go. In the sprint for the line Spain took that place off them.
Ireland’s coxless pair Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh ended their Olympic Games with a second in the B final in Vaires-sur-Marne. The Irish boat began the B final slowly and approaching the 500m mark the pair were fourth in the field. As the field spread out, Ireland slowly made their way forward and were placed third at the halfway mark, 1,000m.
Keogh and Murtagh made their move in the third quarter of the race and were the fastest boat heading towards the three-quarter stage.
Spain by then had taken a significant lead and, although Ireland pushed hard over the final 500m, the Spanish didn’t wilt, taking first place with Ireland second.
More to follow...
