When Paul O’Donovan starts on a riff Fintan McCarthy picks up the tune and jams along. It might be rehearsed. One way or another, he’s had practice. “We’ve shifted the target onto the big guns in the event,” McCarthy said, with a broad smile, taking the cue from his partner.
The punchline for O’Donovan’s routine is that the reigning World and Olympic champions are only third seeds at this regatta. Baked into that calculation is a couple of dull performances at World Cup events earlier in the year – which hardly mattered then and matters less now.
They had just won their heat in bloodless fashion, taking command before halfway and coasting home in the slowest of the three heats. They remain clear favourites for another gold medal.
“We’ve not heard that talk at all,” said O’Donovan, determined to be tickled by the line of questioning. “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.”
Picking up the thread from Saturday, Irish boats enjoyed another strong session. Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh made a storming finish to their heat in the women’s pair, grabbing second place on the line, .01 of a second ahead of Czechia.
Having finally burned off the British crew for third place in the closing 200 metres they went in pursuit of Czechia, nabbing them in the final stroke of the race, to secure a place in Wednesday’s semi-final.
“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. “It’s a long week until the semis and finals and stuff so the first race is always going to feel a bit of a hit - but you want it to feel like that. You don’t want to necessarily feel good straight away, you don’t want to peak too soon.”
In the men’s pair Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan came through a titanic heat that ended with a frantic four-boat photo-finish. With a desperate final lunge, the Fermanagh pair finished .02 of a second in front of Switzerland, the reigning world champions.
“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 - World Cup 1 - and we didn’t have a great regatta. [We had] a bit of injury, a bit of sickness before it. To go out there after a four week training camp and, like, we’ve been putting in good miles.
“It’s good to see where everyone stands and get something in the legs. Feeling very fresh. We’re not used to feeling fresh with the training programme we’re on. It’s nice to get a bit of fatigue back in the body.”
The first setback of the regatta for Ireland came in the women’s lightweight double scull where Mags Cremen and Aoife Casey finished third in their heat, with only two semi-final spots available.
GB, who won the heat, have been unbeaten since the last Olympics so the race for second spot was essentially between Ireland and Greece. The Greeks got off to a flying start and kept the Irish crew at arm’s length for most of the race. With 200 metres to go Cremen and Casey closed to within 15 metres but failed to close that gap, eventually finishing just over four seconds adrift. They will go into a repechage on Monday morning.
The women’s four must also contest a repechage on Tuesday after finishing third in their semi-final. With just nine crews in their event, only two boats qualified from each semi-final, with the remaining two places to be decided in the repechage. Ireland won bronze at the Tokyo Games, with two of that crew, Eimear Lambe and Emily Hegarty, still in the boat.
On Saturday Zoe Hyde and Alison Bergin negotiated their heat of the women’s double scull on their Olympic debuts. Their third place finish sent them into a semi-final on Tuesday when Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch will also be back on the water.
In a stacked heat, they finished ahead of the European silver medallists Spain and the reigning Olympic champions France in the men’s double sculls. The Irish crew sat off a blistering early pace, but improved into a close second by the halfway stage and soon took command. With 800 metres to go they were in front and in control.
As a matter of interest, they are the second seeds. Medal prospects too.
