O'Donovan and McCarthy are not unbeatable but they are still the ones to beat

Today Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy defend their title and two other crews go in their own Olympic finals.

Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy. Pic ©INPHO/James Crombie

Ireland’s rowing team has one medal to its name already at these Games. 

Another will surely follow on Friday with Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy defending their title from 2020, and two other crews go in their own Olympic finals.

It’s a strong hand to play and Ireland’s last at the Vaires-sur-Marne rowing centre.

The men’s pair of Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney will be the first of the Irish crews in ‘A’ final action. 

Bronze medallists at last year’s World Championships in Belgrade, which went down in history as this country’s first-ever heavyweight sweep medal.

Also in the field are the same Swiss and GB crews that finished above them on the podium that day last September, but the Romanian pair that came in fourth in Serbia has been replaced by a completely new partnership.

Second up is that lightweight double sculls decider with O’Donovan and McCarthy looking to retain a gold medal for Ireland at an Olympics for only the second time, and the first since Pat O’Callaghan doubled up in the hammer throw in LA in 1932.

O’Donovan has been playing psychological mind games all week, talking up the fact that the Swiss are seeded number one here and the Italians number two but the Irish display in the semi-finals punctured any more talk of pulling like underdogs in this one.

They are an entirely different beast to the crew that fell to a rare defeat in a World Cup regatta earlier this year with O’Donovan having returned fully from his time spent away from the boat and McCarthy putting an illness behind him.

They are not unbeatable, but they remain the ones to beat.

Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey have had to work to make it to their lightweight women’s final, coming up shy in their heat, doing the necessary in a repechage, and then taking the last of the three spots in their semi-final.

Maybe it's significant and maybe it's not but their qualifying time in the second semi was better than the winning time in the first. Bronze medallists at the Worlds in 2022, and seventh in the last edition, they are there or thereabouts.