He came all the way from Rio de Janeiro, then fought his way through three tough races to reach the A Final at the World Championships in Rotterdam. Paul O’Donovan should be proud of himself, but only if he steps up to receive a gold medal as the best lightweight single sculler in the world will he be completely content.
Any doubt about this is punctured when The Irish Times asks him a simple question: He could have reached the final by a different route - why did he expend so much energy in each of his three races to win each one?
“You can’t let them (his opponents) see there is any chink in the armour,” he says. He may be known for #PullLikeaDog, but inside the West Cork man with the Olympic silver medal is a bigger predator.
He identifies Peter Galambos and Rajko Hrvat as rivals in the final, but the one he must master is the competitor who has come through his races winning all the way: Lukas Babac of Slovakia. The reigning European champion is 31 and would love to claim the scalp of the internet sensation who is nine years his junior.
O’Donovan trained on Friday and looked calm and relaxed. He joked that having spoken to his team-mates Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll he is happy to be on a break away from the celebrations at home - he is unsure what it will be like returning to the “madness” of the welcome he and Gary will receive in Skibbereen on Monday.
O’Driscoll and O’Donovan are the Ireland lightweight pair and they go in their A Final just minutes after the lightweight single test. There are three Irishmen in the race, and the Britain crew which includes Coleraine’s Joel Cassells are hot tips to retain their world title. France, Ireland and Denmark will be in the hunt for medals - a very good row for Ireland could make it a very special day.
The spirit in the Ireland camp has been excellent. Yet it is still rare to see an Ireland team take out a British one in a head-to-head battle. Daire Lynch and Ronan Byrne did it here.
The Ireland junior double scull needed to finish in a top-three place in their quarter final to make it to the semi-finals. Italy and Turkey gained control of the first two places by the middle of the race. Behind, Ireland and Britain were locked together on exactly the same time at 1,000 metres, but then Byrne and Lynch moved. They left Britain behind and seriously challenged Turkey - missing out on second by seven hundredths of a second.
Lynch is a good example of the modern, successful, rower. He is 18, but he did not celebrate his birthday because he was preparing to compete in the junior single at the Irish Championships. He won.
The Ireland women’s junior double of Aoife Casey and Emily Hegarty also qualified for their semi-final. They finished second in their repechage behind Italy.
These two crews compete in semi-finals towards the end of the Saturday’s programme. By then Paul O’Donovan will have reached the end of his exceptional odyssey.
