AND SO THE world turns, the sun rises, and Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy ease through an Olympic regatta. The Skibbereen duo are the defending champions and remain the boat to beat in Paris, and their opening heat was another pacific rout atop the water. The Norwegian boat hung around gamely before they too were defeated by the brutal attrition of Ireland’s strokes, beaten by more than seven seconds.
It was another utterly dominant outing, though don’t tell that to Paul O’Donovan.
“If you look at the seeding list we are way down on it this time”, O’Donovan told the media after their heat.
“I can’t even count how many names are above us. Maybe that is down to the lack of my counting abilities, and I forgot my abacus but the pressure is on everyone else here. We are just here to enjoy ourselves, do the best we can and take a few of the big scalps all going well.”
But Paul, are you guys not the biggest scalp going?
“We’ve not heard that talk at all. As I was saying we are seeded way down the list. People are delusional if they are having that talk at the minute. We have belief in ourselves that we can come out on top. That’s what we are looking forward to trying to do.”
O’Donovan and McCarthy are third seeds, behind the Italians and the Swiss, both of whom beat Ireland at their final major race prior to the Olympics. But that was treated in the rowing world as a black swan event, given the Irish duo have won two world golds and two European golds since they won Olympic gold in Tokyo.
“We’ve shifted the target onto the big guns in the event”, added Fintan.
“And what’s happened is we’ve kind of shifted it without them realising”, chimed Paul, “so it’s after taking them by surprise now. And they’re kind of getting worried, is the feeling around the boat park. Being the favourites, they’re not used to it.”
So perhaps this is all a grand psychological play to keep motivated for another Olympic tilt; a kind of Yerrah on the Water. Or perhaps O’Donovan was simply keeping himself entertained while he had to spend a few minutes standing around, talking to us.
Either way, his brilliance is such was that it wasn’t very convincing. Plus, Fintan grinned and suppressed a few sniggers as he Paul was talking.
But this all media frippery at the end of the day: O’Donovan and McCarthy’s sole concern will be their semi-final on Wednesday morning, in which they’ll likely get a close-up look at either the Italians or the Swiss.
Their cruise came at the end of a positive morning on the water for Ireland, during which Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney burnished their medal prospects in the men’s pair.
They finished third in their heat in a dramatic photo finish, sneaking into the semi-final without needing the repechage, edging out reigning world champions Switzerland, beaten by New Zealand and Spain.
“We’re delighted to get a race put down on the track”, said Corrigan. “For me anyway, that’s nearly the most nervous one. It’s been April since we raced together, and we didn’t have a great regatta. A bit of injury, a bit of sickness before too.
“No different to ourselves people have stepped on since the last time we raced. Like the Kiwis, we beat them handy enough in Lucerne, but they’ve stepped on since and a few combination changes.
“I didn’t realise we were fighting for the top three for the last 200 metres. I realised the Kiwis were in the mix and I said, ‘God, we’ve got to get a move on here.’
“I knew the Swiss were falling back. I knew a 100 or so metres before the line that we were up on them. Coaches don’t like to see you looking out so much, they like to see you focused and keep a bit internal.
“It’s very different from the world championships. Usually at a world championships, the first race, I don’t want to say it’s easy, but compared to that it’s easy.
“This is more like a semi-final of a world championships, even trying to get into a semi-final here.”
They will race in the semi-finals next Wednesday, as will Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh. Both were part of the bronze-winning quarter in Tokyo but have now downsized to compete in the women’s pair. Needing only to avoid finishing fourth in a four-boat heat, the Irish crew summoned a startling finish to nab second place ahead of the Czechs by all of one hundredth of a second. Romania won comfortably by four seconds.
“We didn’t really know what was going on to our left”, said Keogh. “GB were right beside us so we could kind of feed off them a little bit. I was happy enough with how we were tracking against them. I saw them make a bit of a move then obviously towards the end and again I think we responded quite well.”
But in making the medal case for a medal for the duo later this week, the heat’s evidence was thin. Romania were flagged as medal contenders ahead of the Games and they finished a comfortable four seconds of the Irish, while, for what it’s worth, Ireland’s time wouldn’t have been enough to avoid a repechage in either of the other heats. The Dutch and Australian crews are the medal favourites, and both easily won their respective heats.
“We’ve just come off a really hard couple of weeks of training and the body is still in that kind of shock of training so hard”, said Murtagh. “You don’t want to necessarily feel good straight away, you don’t want to peak too soon. So we’re confident in ourselves in how we’re feeling at the moment and how we’re going to feel over the next couple of days.”
The rest of the Irish crews on the water today must instead rely on the back-door repechage to the next round. The women’s lightweight double of Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremin finished third in their heat behind gold medal favourites GB, and Greece. They must race again, at 10am tomorrow morning, to force their way into the semi-finals.
The women’s four, meanwhile lagged a distant third in their heat, finishing seven seconds from the top-two spot they needed to book a spot in the final. Their repechage is on Tuesday morning, in which they’ll have to finish in the top two to race for a medal on Thursday.
O’Donovan and McCarthy are, barring something utterly unforseen, a lock to return for their final on Friday morning, underdog act notwithstanding.
But then again, it makes sense that they’ve painted targets on the backs of their opponents.
For only in rowing can you see their backs when you’re winning.
