Clonmel rower Daire Lynch says he tried to put the fact that he was up against Olympic champions out of his mind in the Men’s Single Sculls final at the national championships over the weekend.
The Yale economics student was up against 2020 Olympic double sculls gold medalists Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy along with 2016 Olympic silver medalist Gary O’Donovan.
He held off a late challenge from Paul in the last 500 metres to take the win at the National Rowing Centre.
Speaking to Ronan Quirke on last night’s Extra Time here on Tipp FM, 23-year-old Daire said he was well aware of who he was up against.
“When I was racing over in Lucerne at the World Cups, they had massive power off the line whereas Paul would be slow enough off the line, so I think the whole way down the course we were neck and neck.”
“I think the hardest part of all was holding my nerve because I looked across at 500 metres to go and I’m like ‘Jeez I could win this thing’ and if you start thinking too much you start tensing up, so I just put the head down and looked at the clock and not look at what they were doing.”
