IT’S an Olympic year and Paul O’Donovan means business.
The Skibbereen Rowing Club great – and he’s still only 29 years old – will target a third Olympic medal this summer, and has shown his intent already by setting a new lightweight Irish indoor 2000m record of 5:58.4.
To break the six-minute barrier as a lightweight rower is pretty sensational stuff. We’re reliably informed that the Aughadown man is just the third lightweight rower ever to go under six minutes, putting O’Donovan in an elite group.
Danish rower Henrik Stephansen holds the world record of 5:56.7, set in 2013, while France’s Jérémie Azou has also gone under six minutes as well. O’Donovan has now powered into a select group of the world’s greatest lightweight rowers.
This augurs well for the Skibb-powered Irish men’s lightweight double in Paris this summer when O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy will look to make it back-to-back Olympic gold medals after their Tokyo triumph. O’Donovan will target a third Olympic medal in a row, having also won silver in Rio 2016 alongside his brother Gary.
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