IRELAND’S DAIRE LYNCH and Philip Doyle impressed again as they stormed into the final of the men’s Double Sculls final at the Paris Olympics this morning.
Rowing from Lane 4 in the second semi-final, the Ireland duo were in third place at the 500m mark, trailing second-place USA and Germany in front. They swapped second and third place with the Americans throughout the next 500m with New Zealand staying right alongside the leaders in fourth.
Lynch and Doyle then nosed their way into the front with a brilliant surge coming into the final quarter. They extended their advantage over the final strokes to win in an impressive time of 6:13.14 with USA and New Zealand also advancing to the final.
The Netherlands, Spain and Romania qualified from the other semi-final.
Ireland’s Alison Bergin and Zoe Hyde fell short in their quest to reach the final of the Women’s Double Sculls as they took fifth in their semi-final.
Bergin and Hyde were in fifth place after the opening 500m, with New Zealand establishing a lead ahead of the Netherlands and France crews. The Ireland boat were still in that position with 500m to go, pushing hard for a top-three spot to progress to the final.
They pushed again in the final stretch but were unable to reduce the gap as they crossed the line in fifth in a time of 3:28.27.
The Ireland women’s four of Emily Hegarty, Natalie Long, Eimear Lambe, Imogen Magner were also in action in the repechage, needing a top-two spot to get into the final.
They were in third place after 1,000m with China leading comfortably while USA were in second. A gap started to form between them and the Irish boat coming into the final 500m as the USA took the lead from China.
Ireland then drifted into fourth as they were overtaken by Denmark coming towards the finish line in a time of 6:38.10.
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