Another international success for Olympics-bound Tipperary rower Daire Lynch

The Irish Men's Double pair of Banbridge's Philip Doyle and Clonmel's Daire Lynch are coming home from rowing's World Cup with silverware after winning bronze at Lago di Varese in Italy today.

The Olympics-bound Doyle and Lynch just squeezed past the German crew into third position coming to the line.

“We had one of our fastest starts ever,” said Doyle. “And then we looked around and we weren't in the medal contention. The plan was we had a sprint up our sleeves to go early at 700 metres, but then Daire called it early at 750 metres.

“A part of me was looking at the stroke coach thinking, ‘how is this going to last?’ But it did and it increased and the speed was good.

“I knew from the speed on the stroke coach that we were coming into the medals no matter what happened because no one could match what we were doing”.

It's the latest success for Lynch and Doyle, who last September won a bronze medal in the Heavyweight Double Sculls final at the World Senior Rowing Championships in Belgrade.

In doing so, the pair qualified the Irish boat for participation in this year's Olympic Games in Paris.

25-year-old Daire Lynch also placed fourth at last year's European Rowing Championships alongside Philip Doyle.

The Clonmel Rowing Club member won five Irish championships (four singles, one pair) and previously placed eighth at the Junior World Championship. He won gold at the 2020 European Under 23 Rowing Championships alongside Ronan Byrne.

The World Cup was also a successful event for the Irish Women's pair of Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh, who won silver medals and will also compete at the Paris Olympics.