Daire Lynch wins in Poland - Let's get the bunting out for another Tipperary Olympian!

In the third  and final Regatta of the World Cup series, the Irish duo of Daire Lynch, Clonmel Rowing Club and Philip Doyle, Portora BC laid down a marker to all their opponents in the upcoming Olympics.

Over the  course of an action packed few days in Poland, the Irish heavyweight 2x came comfortably through their first round into the semi-final. Here they had a great ding-dong battle with New Zealand, eventually finishing just 0.2 of a second behind the  Kiwi’s.

The six boats in the final were Germany, France who are the reigning  Olympic champions from Tokyo, Poland who were hoping to shine in front of the home crowd, GB and New Zealand. Poland popped out of the blocks,  closely followed by the French and Irish boats. 

Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle have concentrated on building their aerobic capacity in the last few months and this approach was paying dividends as they were making inroads into the Polish lead. By 1,500 metre mark the Irish had a clear advantage and the French and Polish were paying the price for their initial exertions allowing Germany and New Zealand to slip through for the silver and bronze medals.

NOW HEADING TO PARIS

So a  great win for Irish rowing and it’s exactly the boost that Daire and Philip need as they head for Paris.

Commenting after the race Daire said they normally come from behind, so to find themselves in the lead at 1200m was a bit of a shock. However it was good that they could keep it going all the  way to the end.

These guys are  rowing together for just over a year at this stage and we can see that they are getting better all the time. No stone is left unturned in training and in the heat of battle their determination and grittiness delivers the results. They return to the NRC in Inniscarra for training this week and then it’s off to Varese in Italy to put the final polish on their preparations for Paris.

Daire will become the fourth person from Clonmel to represent Ireland at the Olympics. Newport has Charlene Mawdesley and well done to her, but Clonmel has Daire Lynch, so come on everybody, let’s get the bunting out to cheer on CRC'S first Olympian.