IRISH ROWING SUPERSTARS Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy cemented their status as the best lightweight double sculls crew in the world as they sealed back-to-back Olympic titles in Paris.
Friday morning’s victory sees O’Donovan make history as the first Irish athlete ever to win medals at three Olympic Games.
The Skibbereen duo turned up the heat in the second half of the race to take gold in 6:10.99 ahead of Italy’s Stefano Oppo and Gabriel Soares (6:13.33), who pipped Greece’s Antonios Papakonstantinou and Petros Gaidatzis in a photo finish (6:13.44).
Oppo and Soares set a ferocious early pace in Friday morning’s final at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Centre, prompting Papakonstantinou and Gaidatzis to make an early push of their own to edge in front.
Defending champions O’Donovan and McCarthy sat between the duelling pair, biding their time before slowly dialling up their stroke rate as the race approached the half-way mark.
From there, the destination of the gold appeared a formality as O’Donovan and McCarthy showed the power and stamina that has made them the undisputed kings of this class in recent years.
They had more than two seconds to spare over the field at the finish line, while Oppo and Soares had just enough left in the tank to clinch silver on the final stroke.
“No-one believed we could do it coming into this competition,” O’Donovan told RTÉ afterwards. “Against all the odds, we stuck with it and trained hard.
“We’re very happy to have proved the doubters wrong. It’s a good day for the Irish.”
McCarthy said: “We had a rocky enough season — well, I did, Paul’s obviously been consistent as hell throughout the whole year.
“I was trying to keep under wraps the nerves and the doubts but coming out for the final, there were no nerves. We had some really good rounds and I really felt like we were back at our best for this race.”
He added: “It’s just been a crazy journey the last few years and honestly the privilege of a lifetime to be rowing with Paul and under Dominic [Casey, coach] for my whole rowing career.
“It’s amazing.”
Paul O Donavan, our greatest ever Olympian
@Cathal Scully: FACT
@Square: no argument. Another great performance by the lads.
@Cathal Scully: fluke!
@Kevin Dillon: he makes me laugh all the time his interviews are amazing sure its just a fluke lol
Brilliant lads! What a win and it looked so comfortable too. The stroke rate perfectly increasing into that last 500m. Left the Greeks and Italians in their wake over the last 250m too.
Brillent legends up skibbereen
Some achievement ! Well done
The boys having the craic and winning gold medals for fun.
@Joe O’Regan: Great to see fellas enjoying what they do while being totally focused and successful. Mighty crac when they get home to Skib.
@TL55: that’s why they are successful. Being down to earth and grounded means they are calm under pressure. The two of them are amazing.
@Joe O’Regan: 100%
Incredible! Bravo lads, outstanding.
Well that’s a terrible start to the day for Ray Ridge
@anthony davoren: he’s devastated I’d say
@anthony davoren: Come on now, Anthony, this isn’t about me. Let’s congratulate the lads on a gold medal and stop obsessing about me for a moment.
@Ray Ridge: lol
@Sean: Lots of love to you too, Sean xx
@Ray Ridge: it’s ok Ray two other teams failed to win medals today, you can double down on them to get your fill of negativity out of the way for the day. You were riding the crest of a wave yesterday with the boxers
@anthony davoren: Ya, I saw that Anthony. Poor start to the track and field for us also. All 3 runners were tailed off in the 1500m heats. Sailers messed up at the start there also. Bar, the skibb rowers who were expected to medal, it has been another poor morning overall for our athletes.
@Ray Ridge: 5 medals allready gym guy tommorry rory on a charge show jumpers in with a great chance later poor morning wtf we won gold ya spoon
@Square: Lads, Ray only exists because ye give him purpose by replying to him and mentioning him. If everyone would just ignore him he’d disappear because all he wants is the reaction. You can’t win with words because you acknowledging he exists is his goal. Wise up please.
@PJ Smith: he just a bit of fun
@PJ Smith: Maybe take some of his comments with a pinch of salt?
@PJ Smith: ah it is funny seeing the ridiculous stuff he posts. Nobody here gives him a morsel of credibility. He’s a troll but it’s fun firing his own rubbish back at him :D
Absolutely top class. Go on the Cork boys!!!
Yesssss!
Ah class lads. Tears in the eyes even before they crossed the line. Jaysus the amount of Irish in the crowd LOL. Helluva way to sign off the lightweights for the pair of them. Legends.
Fintan McCarthy a ringer for a young Matt Damon…those rowing boys are tough as nails , fair play to them, brilliant performance
Outstanding athletes. Congratulations
RTE geo blocked in the north and BBC showing diving highlights… raging couldn’t watch it!
@MickA: mick try this link for whatever event they block. I just caught the lads final https://www.vipbox.lc/
@MickA: That’s a disgrace. There should be some form of agreement between north and south that neither network be geo blocked. Shouldn’t have to miss out on an historic win like this
Ridge would say they should have won by more
@Gary Galligan: once again Ridge has been humbled. You love to see it, and the silence is deafening
Incredible achievement. Well done lads, so lucky to have these boys to cheer on.
Cork for the win, what did ye expect that’s what we do.
@Marc O Connell: Apart from the hurling final?