The heats and semifinals are over and Ireland has qualified a record four boats in the A finals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Lightweight Men's Double Sculls - Fintan McCarthy and Paul O'Donovan
We'll start with the obvious. The boys from Skibbereen are on course to repeat their gold medal winning performance from Tokyo. Coming into the event, most pundits believed the podium was set with Ireland, Italy and Switzerland to fight it out to determine the final order.
All three won their heat but in the semifinal Ireland beat Switzerland with clearwater between the boats. Italy won the other semi-final but weren't as convincing and Ireland are now red hot favourites for gold. O'Donovan will become the first Olympian to win medals in 3 Olympics and they'll be the first Irish gold medal winners to retain their title since Dr Pat O'Callaghan in 1932, if they succeed.
Men's Double Sculls - Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle
Bronze medal winners from last year's World Championship, this crew could be set to become Ireland's first ever heavyweight men's rower to win an Olympic medal. It won't be as straightforward as the lightweight lads, as all 6 crews in the final will think they can win a medal.
☘️ Semi Result ☘️
Ross and Nathan are into the Olympic Final after placing 3rd in the semi!#WeAreRowingIreland #GreenBlades pic.twitter.com/RNQEGhNPST— Rowing Ireland (@RowingIreland) July 31, 2024
The three heats were won by Ireland, Romania and Netherlands. In the semi finals it finished Ireland - USA - New Zealand and Netherlands - Spain - Romania. Ireland had beaten Spain in the heat while Netherlands beat USA and New Zealand. The Irish wins were quickest at each stage but they were in closer race in the semi final than the Dutch. The world champion Dutch should be favourites but an Irish gold wouldn't be a shock.
Men's Coxless Pair - Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney
The first Irish boat to reach the A final in this event, the lads from Fermanagh have given themselves an outside shot at a medal.
Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney show great resilience to hold off New Zealand crew and qualify for men's pair final #rowing #RTESport #Paris2024
📱Updates https://t.co/vKHnf9Lcfd
📺 Watch https://t.co/b2OI4OoWVJ pic.twitter.com/WOYOao22UY— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 31, 2024
In the heats, they recovered from a horrendous start to draw level with 3 other boats in a sprint for the line. It finished Spain – New Zealand – Ireland – Switzerland with less than half a second between the boats and the world champion Swiss being forced to go through the repechage. The other heats saw Croatia beat Romania, before Britain beat South Africa.
The semis finished Croatia – Switzerland – Spain and Romania – GB – Ireland so it would appear that Croatia are the class of the field and the great Sinkovic brothers third gold and 4th medal overall. Behind them it gets interesting. Every rower - bar Romania – has won a medal at the world championship so there’s a huge amount of pedigree. The Romanian pair may not have the pedigree themselves, but the Romania boat certainly does. A medal for our lads isn’t out of the question but when you finish 3rd in your heat, and 3rd in your semi, finishing 3rd or higher in the final would be a surprise.
Lightweight Women's Double Sculls - Aoife Casey and Mags Cremen
Completing the set of Cork-based lightweights to make Olympic finals, Casey and Cremen had to take the long way to this final. We said in our pre-Olympic preview that, apart from GB, there was little to separate 7/8 crews and so it has proven to be.
"It's an unbelievable final to have secured that and to look forward to that on Friday."
Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen speak to @DavidGillick after qualifying for the women's lightweight final.#RTESport #Paris2024 #Rowing
📺 Watch https://t.co/b2OI4OoWVJ
📱Updates… pic.twitter.com/jijESvkc31— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 31, 2024
Ireland finished behind GB and Greece in the heat but won their repechage comfortably. In the semi-final they had to use a sprint finish to oust the silver medalists from Tokyo (France) to get in. The final of the women's lightweight double in Tokyo was one of the races of the regatta with France and Netherlands winning medals from lanes 2 and 1 respectively. It will be a shock if Ireland win a medal here, but this event can produce shocks.
Prediction: We predict two medals to add to Ireland's total already at the Paris 20204 Olympics.
