Paul O’Donovan has a straight face that he wears when he’s not being serious. In that pose the questions don’t matter because he would have prepared something earlier. This time it was a little ditty about the reigning World and Olympic champions arriving at this regatta as outsiders. The French love a farce.
“If you look at the seeding list, we are way down on it this time,” he said, of their third seeding behind Italy and Switzerland. “I can’t even count how many names are above us [two]. Maybe that is down to the lack of my counting abilities, and I forgot my abacus [one, two] but the pressure is on everyone else here. We are just here to enjoy ourselves, do the best we can and take a few of the big scalps all going well.”
It was a weekend full of promise at the regatta for the biggest rowing team that Ireland has ever sent to the Olympics. By lunchtime on Sunday all seven boats had been in the water and five of them had reached a semi-final. The women’s four and lightweight women’s double sculls must negotiate a repechage, but their prospects are good.
O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy won their heat at their leisure, but the outstanding performance of the weekend was produced by Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch who established their medal credentials in the men’s double sculls with a dominant display.
Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney also made an impressive Olympic debut in the men’s pair, squeezing out World Champions Switzerland to take the last qualifying spot in a blanket finish to their heat. Four boats were spread across the course at the finish line, separated by just .43 of a second.
A few of the crews referred to a heavy training load at camps in Italy and Spain in recent weeks, and at least three crews were expecting a significant improvement in their second races. But the mood in the camp is buoyant. The rowers are staying at a hotel near the venue rather than running the gauntlet of Paris traffic from the athlete’s village.
None of them attended the opening ceremony on Friday night so they dressed up in their Team Ireland rig-outs and arranged a private parade on the hotel grounds instead. Did O’Donovan take part?
“No,” said McCarthy. “He was training.”
On the first weekend of action, Irish athletes ran the spectrum of the Olympic experience. On Saturday night Rhys McClenaghan produced a stunning performance on the pommel, qualifying with the highest score and becoming the first Irish gymnast to reach two Olympic finals.
McClenaghan had a harrowing experience in the final in Tokyo three years ago and on Saturday night he was circumspect and bullish in the same breath. “It could be better but it was solid,” he said. “That was the word Luke [Carson, his coach] was using when I came off. It was calm.
“That’s what you want to be like in that reappearance at the Olympic Games, and that’s what it did feel like, but of course, I want to be pushing more and more to that perfection. That isn’t attainable but we’ll try. I can upgrade and I plan to upgrade. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing that score bumped up even further. It felt so familiar out there, that pressure I have on my shoulders because I do it every day in training.”
Elsewhere it has been a difficult start to the Games for the Irish boxing team. Before Jack Marley won his heavyweight bout last night — to get within one win of a medal — three Irish fighters had been eliminated, including Aidan Walsh, a bronze medallist in Tokyo. He was beaten 4-0 on points to the Frenchman Makan Traore on Sunday, despite winning the opening round handsomely.
“I was shocked when I heard [the scoring],” said Walsh. “I was just happy with the performance. I know I got a warning for holding … I know it has been a thing over the last few months, but I have been doing that all my career, hitting and holding. You usually get away with three or four warnings before you get a proper warning. I don’t know.”
There were also defeats for Dean Clancy and Grainne Walsh, both of whom were making their Olympic debuts.
Meanwhile, at the Stade de France, Ireland’s women’s sevens team opened their campaign with a 21-12 defeat to Great Britain, followed later in the evening by 38-0 thrashing of South Africa. Against Great Britain — a team they had beaten in their last four meetings — Ireland led 12-7 at the break with two tries from Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe but then failed to score in the second half.
Ireland’s recovery, though, was impressive: a six-try romp against South Africa, which included two tries for Béibhinn Parsons and another for Murphy Crowe.
On the water, Robert Dickson and Séan Waddilove have made a storming start to Skiff series, sitting in second place after the first three races.
The weekend, though, finished on a terrific high with a magnificent performance from Mona McSharry in the pool. Having swam her second fastest time ever in the heats of the 100m breaststroke yesterday morning the Sligo swimmer broke the Irish record in the semi-final to go through as the second fastest qualifier.
Having finished eighth in Tokyo McSharry enters tonight’s final with an outstanding chance of a medal.
It’s only just begun.
