LAST UPDATE | 1 Aug 2024
TEAM IRELAND HAVE won their fourth medal of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch claimed bronze in the men’s double sculls rowing.
Down’s Doyle and Tipperary’s Lynch produced a determined final 500 metres to overhaul America and take the final podium position at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Centre.
Romania’s Andrei Sebastian Cornea and Marian Florian Enache are the new Olympic champions, taking gold ahead of runners-up Melvin Twellaar and Stef Broenink of the Netherlands.
Doyle and Lynch, bronze medallists at the 2023 world championships, cemented their standing as legitimate Olympic contenders with the fastest overall time in Tuesday’s semi-finals.
Spain’s Aleix Garcia and Rodrigo Conde set a ferocious — and unsustainable — early pace, as Doyle and Lynch’s more measured first 1000m saw them sitting fourth at the half-way mark.
When reigning world champions Twellaar and Broenink made their move in a bid to close the gap on the Romanian leaders, Ireland upped the ante as well and found themselves locked in a stroke-for-stroke battle with America’s Sorin Koszyk and Ben Davison.
Ireland ultimately had the greater finishing power to edge in front, and briefly threatened to close the gap on the Dutch in second, but ultimately ran out of road before the finishing line, crossing in 6:15.17.
“Well I made a massive mistake at the end so I’ll have to apologise there,” Doyle told RTÉ’s David Gillick after the race. “We were coming for the Dutch big time. We could smell them and sniff them. We went earlier, we pushed harder in the middle to get through.
“We knew people would have something else so I think the mistake I made was a combination of all the other extra work I had to do in the middle but I could feel his legs going, I could feel his calls.
“We went earlier in our sprint, and thankfully we had enough to make the mistake and keep going. But sure we’ll look back and see where we can improve for whatever’s coming next.
'First heavyweight medal ever!'
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 1, 2024
Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch shake hands with the Dutch crew after winning bronze and silver respectively.#RTESport #Paris2024
📺 Watch https://t.co/b2OI4OoWVJ
📱Updates https://t.co/FdweZoIeSi pic.twitter.com/L0p1yz8Jpq
“A first heavy [men's] medal ever, it’s nice to write that into the history books and finally do what we’ve been saying all week. We were trying to be calm and confident to come in under the radar. It’s nice to step out and get the podium for everyone at home. We’ve never seen this many supporters before Lynch admitted he was surprised at the performance of the Romanians.
“We didn’t think they were going to hold on. They nearly got knocked out in the semi-final, they were gifted that spot in the final by Serbia. I didn’t think they’d have that form in the space of two days. So, we were going toe to toe with the Dutch. We knew our sprints a lot better than the Americans.”
Cornea and Enache won in a time of 6:12.58 ahead of Twellaar and Broenink (6:13.92), while Koszyk and Davison were fourth in 6:17.02.
The medal could be the first of a seismic week for Irish rowing with three finals to follow on Friday as Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney, and Aoife Casey and Mags Cremen all bid for Olympic glory.
Excellent from the two lads. Another medal and what a great olympics it is so far. Really enjoying it.
Great effort to get through the USA boat to get the bronze. Another one for the Irish chest
@Aidan: yes Aiden, did well to get past the USA, could have went pear-shaped altogether, race went against them really but a fantastic historic medal for the two great men. Congratulations. Cmon team Ireland.
What a great interview make’s ya proud to be irish well done
@Sean: savage interview, can’t bate the Irish humour.
Started their drive for home a little late perhaps? Another 100 (?) metres and they might have overtaken the Dutch.
But still great to see Irish performers winning medals. I’m old enough to remember Olympics where they all came home empty handed!
Congrats 4th medal baby could be a great day
For sure we will beat the record of 6 at London . Mona and Wiffen each getting medals in swimming Wiffen might even add on that. Doyle and Lynch getting medals and McCarthy and O’Dounghou most likely will get a medal as well . Kellie is guaranteed a medal and Marley could as well if he wins tonight. And then we have Adeleke and the other athletes that will for sure add on the medal collection. A brilliant Olympics
@ashton oriordan: hopefully gym saling and few more surprises to all that
Sounds like everyone is surprised of where the Romanians came from, including the lads?
@An tEoghanach: what u saying lol
@An tEoghanach: yea, it sounded like they felt that if they tracked the Dutch lads it was between them for silver/gold but Romania came from nowhere. Hopefully it was just a tactical masterclass from Romania and nothing more than that. Well done on the medal although I’d say they expected probably silver at least.
Ireland could easily hit double figures for medals – phenomenal games for us
@Owen ODonoghue: if you build it they will come! Good backgrounding too
Outstanding. Bravo. Well done.