‘Our Boy in the Boat’ - Tipperary rower gets ready for the Olympics Games in July

The sport of rowing in Clonmel has always had a strong tradition in the town and Clonmel Rowing Club (CRC), on the banks of the River Suir at The Island, is the town’s oldest sporting club, having been founded in 1869.
All going well, the club will be represented at the Olympic Games for the very first time next July when club member Daire Lynch pairs up with Belfast’s Philip Doyle to compete in the men’s heavyweight 2x event.
Recently, long-serving CRC member Paul Nugent, still active on the water in his 60s, caught up with Daire for a quick chat while he was on his way to Dublin to a sports laboratory to do a VO2 max test, as the machine in Cork was broken at the time.
They chatted about Daire’s introduction to rowing, his early days at the club and his qualification for the holy grail of sport, the Olympic Games of 2024 in Paris.....

There is a new movie out this month directed by George Clooney called ‘The Boys in the Boat’. Set in the depression era of the 1930s, it tells the story of a University of Washington crew who endured many trials and tribulations en route to qualifying the eight for the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin. Adolf Hitler was in power in Germany at the time and he was determined to show the world the superiority of the Aryan race. Would a bunch of university misfits be able to take on the pride of Germany on home ground? Of course, you will have to watch the film to find out all that.

Fast forward 87 years to 2023 and last year’s World Rowing Championship in Belgrade, Serbia where ‘Our Boy in the Boat,’ Clonmel’s Daire Lynch was rowing with Philip Doyle in the men’s heavyweight 2x event. Out of a total of 30 boats, Olympic qualification was up for grabs for the top six. There haven’t been too many sportspeople with links to Clonmel who have had the honour of taking part in an Olympic Games - three who spring to mind immediately are Dr Pat O’Callaghan, who won gold medals in the hammer in 1928 and 1932, and much later John Watson in equestrian sports in the 1988 Olympics, as well as weightlifter Frank Rothwell in 1972. Could Daire Lynch make it onto that distinguished list of Clonmel Olympians?

Daire is the second youngest of four children born to Niall and Joanna. His dad’s claim to fame is that he trialled for Leeds United back in the day but we are still waiting for verification of this from Elland Road in West Yorkshire. In his early years Daire took part in soccer, swimming, GAA and athletics but these sports didn’t really float his boat, if you pardon the pun. When he was in Third Year at Clonmel High School a few of his buddies, including Eoin Hewitt, Conor Sunderland and Daniel Traas, were members of Clonmel Rowing Club and Daire decided to try his hand at rowing at The Island. He enjoyed the sport but success certainly did not come overnight. He had to wait a year before his first win arrived at the Fermoy Sprint Regatta.
It was in Transition Year that Daire really applied himself to the training necessary to progress at his now favourite sport.

Under the guidance of long-serving coaches Jimmy Fennessy and Pat Kinsella, Daire began training twice a day, chalking up a massive 300 kms a week on the rowing machine. A quick back of the envelope calculation for anyone with a knowledge of an ergo would put that at a minimum of 24 hours a week. Back in the 1800s, inspirational rowing coach Steve Fairbairn coined the phrase “mileage makes champions” and what a truism it is when you look at the prodigious work ethic of Daire and the results garnered. Clearly at this young age he had a burning ambition to get to the top of the rowing tree. Even then, he was always researching athletes from endurance programmes and messaging top rowers on Instagram to get training advice. Inspired by the Norwegian triathlete Kristin Blummenfelt, Daire kept up the hectic schedule, even during his Leaving Cert year.

10 September 2023; Daire Lynch, right, and Philip Doyle of Ireland after the Men's Double Sculls Final A during the 2023 World Rowing Championships at Ada Ciganlija regatta course on Sava Lake, Belgrade. Photo by Nikola Krstic/Sportsfile

REMARKABLE TREBLE
In 2016 he recorded a remarkable treble at the Irish rowing championships winning the J18 1x, the Club Scull and the Intermediate 1x. This led to his selection to compete at the Junior World Championships, where he rowed 2x with Ronan Byrne, coming home in eighth place, a very satisfactory outcome for Ireland’s first venture into sending athletes to the Junior World Championships. This was the same year that Paul and Gary O’Donovan won silver at the Rio Olympics and endeared themselves to fans all around the world with their laid- back approach to their success.

Today Daire regards Paul O’Donovan as the rower he admires most. I just heard that Paul’s most recent ergometer performance was 2 hours 40 minutes at a pace of 1’50”/500m. As Bradley Walsh might say on The Chase, have you got what it takes to take on the Olympic athletes?

All these head-turning achievements enabled Daire to gain a sports scholarship to Yale University (in Connecticut, USA), the Ivy League college where he studied Economics. Here Daire loved his time training and competing, helped no doubt by enjoying considerable success in the eight. Daire’s best friend from Yale, Andrew Gulich was in the Swiss coxless pair that won gold at last year’s World Championships and several other teammates were in the GB squad, winning gold and silver medals. Obviously Yale’s reputation in rowing helps to attract the cream of young sportsmen from all over the globe.

It was going to be a long hard week in Belgrade in attempting to qualify the boat for the Paris Olympics next July. In Daire’s own words the pressure was high from the outset and higher it got when they had a disappointing row in the first round, finishing second to the USA. With hopes of a medal evaporating, Olympic qualification seemed like a daunting task for Philip Doyle and himself.

In the quarter-final, the in-form Dutch were firm favourites, with three to qualify. Daire and Philip had a great row, coming in second to the Dutch pair on the day.

They had another good row in the semi-final, pressing the double Olympic champions, the Sinkovic brothers from Croatia, all the way and staying ahead of the Spanish 2x who were silver medallists at the 2022 World Championships, to qualify for the final.

In that final on Sunday, September 10 the large contingent of Irish supporters present hadn’t too much to cheer about early on, as Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle were in sixth place at the 1,000m mark. But those in the know knew that the Irish pair would have a strong second 1,000 and one by one they overhauled Spain, China, Italy and in the last 250m they were overlapping the Croatians. The Dutch, who had dominated the race from 500m were tiring but still had enough in the tank to see them home two seconds ahead of the Sinkovic brothers, with Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle a further second behind in third place. Not alone had the up-to-then elusive Olympic place been realised for Daire, but he also had a bronze medal to go with it on a never-to-be-forgotten day. The best rower ever to come out of Clonmel in the 154-year history of the club was heading to Paris.

Asked why he wanted to be the best, Daire said he wanted to give sport his 100% effort. His single- mindedness and self-belief could be seen in the Irish senior sculls championship in 2021. Just a month after the Tokyo Olympics, the race featured a stellar cast - Paul O’Donovan, Olympic gold medallist, Fintan McCarthy, Olympic gold medallist, Gary O’Donovan, Olympic silver medallist, Fintan McCarthy’s twin brother Jake, and a fellow from Clonmel Rowing Club. At the halfway mark that day, Daire felt good and decided to go for it. Not looking left or right, but just focusing on his own boat, Daire left the cream of Irish rowing in his wake. David slays Goliath. It was Daire’s sixth Irish Rowing Championship and Clonmel’s first senior championship in nearly 100 years.

ALWAYS APPRECIATIVE
As he continued to prepare over Christmas and the New Year period for the Olympic Games, Daire always acknowledges Clonmel coaches Pat Kinsella and Jimmy Fennessy, who were instrumental in setting him on the right path.

He would like to thank John Kennedy Motors, who have provided him with a lovely Toyota Yaris Hybrid to enable him to get to all the training sessions and engagements during his preparations. All of us in the Clonmel Rowing Club wish ‘Our Boy in the Boat’ good health in 2024 and every success in the Olympics in Paris.