EIMEAR Lambe, one of Ireland’s brand new rowing Olympic medallists, says she and her team-mates always believed they could capture a spot on the podium in Tokyo.
The rowing quartet of Lambe, Aifric Keogh, Fiona Murtagh and Emily Hegarty secured Ireland’s first medal of the Tokyo games yesterday with a stunning finish, enough to take the bronze from Britain by half-a-length.
After a slow start, the Irish team were in fifth place at the half-way stage at the Sea Forest Waterway, but they eventually found their rhythm and passed China before hunting down the British boat, which had sat in third for most of the race, passing them with 200 metres to go.
"We knew we could win a medal, it was just about whether we could pull it off," Lambe said afterwards.
"We also knew that every crew was also capable of winning a medal, so it was just about who got down the course as well as they could in these conditions. It was a bit touch and go. Throughout the race I’m like 'we’re coming fourth, fifth …' I was looking out and I knew we were slipping back and we kind of said to ourselves that if that happened we’d just go early.
"I think in the last kilometre we back ourselves and everyone else out there knows that in the last 1k we just start to go. We could kind of hear it left and right, ‘don’t let them, don’t let them’."
Lambe’s team-mate Emily Hegarty hopes the achievement of becoming the first Irish female rowers to win Olympic medals will inspire others to follow them.
"It’s a bit surreal," the Skibbereen woman said.
"It’s something for the future and hopefully it will be the first of many and will give the young girls coming up now real hope. It’s completely possible, if we can do it, anyone can."
Australia, who dominated the race from the very start, held on in the face of a late surge from the Netherlands to take gold, with the Dutch claiming silver ahead of Ireland.
Also in rowing, the Lightweight Men’s Double Scull of Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan dominated their semi-final, winning with a world best time of 6:05.33, two seconds clear of Italy, with Belgium taking the third and final spot in today’s A final.
In the semi-finals of the Lightweight Women’s Double, Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen also impressed, pushing all the way for one of the three spots on offer, finishing fifth on the line with 6:49.24 and will compete in today’s B final.
The Men’s Double Scull of Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne finished fourth in their B final, leaving them with a 10th place finish overall.
In swimming, Sligo’s Mona McSharry signed off on her Olympic debut campaign in impressive fashion with a new Irish senior record of 2:25.08 in the 200m Breaststroke, knocking almost a full second off the previous time she set in April of this year.
In the first heat, the 20-year-old was just touched out for first on the final wall by Kristyna Horska from the Czech Republic. After heat three, McSharry sat in 13th place, with the top 16 going through to the semi-finals, but a fast final heat, led home by Tatjana Schoenmaker in a new Olympic record of 2:19.16, gave the Irish swimmer a final ranking of 20th.
Only a day earlier, McSharry had become Ireland’s first Olympic swimming finalist in 25 years - finishing eighth overall in the 100m Breaststroke.
“To be able to just put out times like that and put together a good race is really great. And if that’s the way that ends this competition then I’m really happy with that,” said McSharry.
McSharry was the third Irish swimmer to set a new senior record on Wednesday alone. Daniel Wiffen from Magheralin in county Down posted 7:51.65 in the 800m Freestyle to lower the Irish senior record he set in April 2021, while Jack McMillan from Bangor led off the men's 4x200m Freestyle Relay with 1:46.66, which bettered the 200m Freestyle record of 1:47.10 he set in December 2020.
Also yesterday, Irish sailors Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove were back out on the water in the 49er class races, with their performances leaving them in 11th place overall. Racing resumes today.
