Banbridge’s Philip Doyle and partner Daire Lynch have qualified for the Final of the men’s double sculls at the Olympics after topping their Semi-Final in Paris.
The pair came from behind, sitting in third for most of the race before finishing strongly to cross the line ahead of the USA and New Zealand to comfortably make it into Thursday’s Final in a time of 6:13.14.
Germany had started strongly, pulling into a big lead at the start, but they could not maintain their momentum and were passed down the closing stretch, eventually finishing fourth.
Defending Olympic champions France couldn’t get the job done in front of a loud home crowd, finishing fifth in the six-team heat more than six seconds behind the Irish duo, with Norway bringing up the rear in sixth.
After posting the fastest time in the heats, Doyle and Lynch have only furthered the belief that they are the front runners for a gold medal after posting the fastest Semi-Final time as well.
Similarly to their heat, the Irish pair – who won bronze at last year’s World Championships – did not react to another boat pulling away, in this case Germany, and instead stayed steady throughout.
Although the Germans looked to be keeping the pace as they were chased by the Irish, Americans and New Zealanders, it was in the second half of the race that their pace began to fade, and in the final quarter they were caught.
And it was at that point that Doyle and Lynch made their move, passing not just the Germans but the American pair of Sorin Koszyk and Ben Davison to cross the line first, with the latter coming in with a time of 6:14.19 and New Zealand’s Jordan Parry and Robbie Manson taking the final spot with a 6:14.30 time.
In the first Semi-Final, the duo of Melvin Twellaar and Stef Broenink of the Netherlands qualified first in a time of 6:13.60, with Spain (6:14.91) and Romania (6:15.73) rounding off the Final line-up.