Super start to year on the water for Tipperary Olympic hopeful Daire Lynch

Clonmel Rowing Club’s Daire Lynch, rowing with Philip Doyle, got their 2024 season off to a great start at the weekend when they won the bronze medal in the 2x at the World Cup regatta in Varese, Italy.

The World Cup regattas are an annual series of three events that act as a lead-up to the World Championships or, as in this year, the Olympics. Points are awarded from first to seventh places and it goes without saying that it is highly prestigious to be crowned overall winner at the end of the series. All the 14 Olympic boat classes are included in the event.

Irish head coach Antonio Maurovaggio would have been anxiously watching to see how his charges would fare in their first taste of international competition in Olympics year. The big news is that the Sinkovic brothers aren’t rowing the 2x this year. They have decided that the Dutch 2x of Stefan Broenink and Melvin Twellaar won’t be caught and so have decided to row the coxless pair, an event in which they won the gold medal in Rio.

At last year’s World Championships Italy finished fourth, just behind Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle. The Italians, racing in front of a partisan crowd, must have been training hard over the winter, as they relegated the Irish 2x into second place in the first round, forcing Lynch and Doyle to compete in the repechage. The repechage went well when the Irish saw off the gutsy challenge of the Australian and Great Britain boats.

In the six-boat final, the Italians led out the race with the red hot favourites, the Dutch, having to work hard to take the lead at 1,500 metres. Even though Daire and Philip had one of their fastest starts ever, they weren’t in medal contention at the halfway stage. With 750 metres to go, Daire Lynch made the ambitious call to go for home. These guys have a great finishing kick but so do the Germans and in one of the most thrilling finishes at the championships the Dutch got home ahead of Italy, with Ireland winning the bronze medal, just 0.16 seconds ahead of Germany, with the Australians and Norway taking the last two spots in the A final.

Clearly, Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle are right on track for the upcoming Olympics. Their next outing will probably be the World Cup 2 regatta in Lucerne at the end of May.

HERE’S HOPING FOR BETTER WEATHER
At home regatta organisers have been pulling their hair out, with the appalling weather forcing the cancellation of the first three regattas of the season- Neptune, Commercial and Skibbereen. Here’s hoping that Limerick Regatta goes ahead this weekend.

WELL DONE MEADHBH
Somebody who is in the money is Meadhbh Terry, who was this week’s Lucky Dip winner in the club lotto. Thanks to all for the support.