Cork rowers qualify for two Olympics finals on Friday

Ireland's Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy were majestic in their performance in the lightweight doubles semi-final yesterday at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and paraded over the finish line in first place once again.

And how home town Skibbereen and home city Cork cheered!

Having a typical start they were in third spot at the 500m mark, but soon turned on the jets to lead by the half-way mark. From there they controlled the race, increasing their lead to have clear water over Switzerland at the 1500m mark, and from there they cruised to the finish line to secure their spot in the final on Friday.

And even better to have clear water over the Swiss, who beat Paul and Fintan on their only other competitive outing earlier this year at World Cup II. But that was a first time back on the water for Paul and Fintan in quite a while.

Our Olympic gold medallists are into another Olympic final, and there they will medal, and expect it to be gold, barring misfortune.

Prior to that Aoife Casey of Skibbereen and Margaret Cremen of Rochestown pulled off a fantastic third spot in the lightweight doubles semi-final to secure a spot on the final.

The Cork Olympians went one better than Tokyo 2020 and made it into the final on the biggest stage of their careers.

They got off to a good start and in their semi they were up against Olympic champions France, and a strong Romanian crew.

Romania led at the 500m mark from Frances and Ireland with Greece, Australia and Tunisia following, but by the half-way mark it was Romania who had taken the lead and France, Greece and Ireland were neck-and-neck for second, third and fourth spots, with just three to quality.

Then Mags and Aoife lifted the rate and pushed hard and there was still little or nothing between the three boats behind Romania as they hit the final 500m.

Then it was go go go for the Irish and they pushed hard against a battling French side, who began to fall behind. Ireland were now in a qualification spot but couldn't afford any mistakes.

And they made none, rowing over the line to take third and in doing so securing an Olympic final spot.

Fantastic! And in doing so they beat the Tokyo Olympic champions, France, who finished outside of the qualification spots in fourth.

Earlier, Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney had a fabulous race in green also, placing third in their semi and in doing so secured an Olympic final spot, while Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh had a disappointing race and finished sixth in their semi, progressing instead to the B final.

Meanwhile, Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch delivered a powerful performance yesterday to make it into the Olympic final of the men’s double sculls. They took a commanding lead from early on and cruised across the line in first spot.

Overall, a great couple of days for Irish rowing, with four boats qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics finals.

Here's what to watch for...

Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch go in the men's double sculls final at 9:42am today; on Friday at 9.42am Ross Corirgan and Timoney go in the men's pair final; then at 10:06am Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy race in the lightweight men's double sculls final; and finally at 10:18am Aoife Casey and Mags Cremen go in the lightweight women's double sculls final.

Prediction: Medals for sure, possibly two golds!