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O'Donovan and McCarthy set world best time as they power into Olympic final

July 28th, 2021 4:03 AM

By Kieran McCarthy

Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy won their A/B semi-final on Wednesday morning in Tokyo.

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THEY are favourites for gold, and the all-conquering Skibbereen combination of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy laid down another impressive marker at the Tokyo Olympics in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Paul and Fintan were dominant, again, as they won their A/B semi-final in the lightweight men’s double in Tokyo in a world best time of 6:05.33, to finish over two seconds ahead of Italy (6:07.70) in second with Belgium (6:13.07) in third taking the third spot in Thursday’s A final. Ukraine, Spain and Indonesia all followed home, but the story, again, is how impressive the Irish boat of Paul and Fintan was.

World and European champions, they were second behind the Italians after 500 metres, but soon they hit the front and they just pulled away from the rest of the field as the semi-final progressed. All eyes will now be on their A final at 1.50am on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, Skibbereen rower Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen finished fifth in their semi-final in the lightweight women’s double and they will race in the B final on Thursday.

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