Tipperary has it’s first Olympic medal in 92 years.
Clonmel’s Daire Lynch, alongside his Banbridge teammate Philip Doyle, took bronze in this morning’s mens double sculls final in Paris.
Romania took gold whilst the Netherlands boat took the silver.
It’s the first medal won by a Tipperary man since Nenagh’s Bob Tisdall took Gold in the 400m hurdles at the 1932 LA games, 92 years ago to the day.
Speaking to RTE Sport after the medal ceremony, Daire Lynch was delighted with the support in Paris and in Clonmel:
“There’s a huge Irish support, a load of people came from Clonmel, my mother’s family is all here, my dad’s family so it’s great to see them all here.
“I kind of stayed away from it all for the last week, I stuck to my own bubble but it will be good to see them now.
“I saw (the big screen in Kickham Plaza) that down in the middle of the town, again I think they didn’t want to be sending on too much to me which is good of them, they didn’t want to be getting me too nervous over the whole thing so it will be good to look back on that now.”
A massive crowd gathered at Kickham Plaza in Clonmel to watch the race this morning.
Among them was Jimmy Fennessy of Clonmel Rowing Club, who was Daire’s first rowing coach.
Jimmy told Tipp FM about what it meant to see Daire win an Olympic medal:
“It was tremendously emotional.
“Very, very proud of him, his family, the town of Clonmel and more importantly our Clonmel Rowing Club, our wee club, the island, we are 150 years old and boy is this some achievement.
“We did have another person years ago that was on the periphery of the Olympic squad, Dr. Pat O’Callaghan’s son Hugh, he was our idol when we were growing up but this is gone to a whole (new) level and Daire deserves every single thing that he has got.
“I have a saying, the three A’s, application, ability and attitude and he had the whole lot in abundance.”
You can watch Jimmy Fennessy’s full interview here: https://www.facebook.com/TippFM/videos/832711421902677.
